Media Find Current TV Electrifying
Stories downplay
negatives, fawn over Al Gore, businessman as out to change the
world.
What do you call a politician whose new business venture relies on
money from someone he once criticized? If your name is Al Gore, then
Time magazine calls you an activist entrepreneur, shamelessly
promoting your new business.
In an era where media coverage emphasizes the downside
of company CEOs, Gore received what amounted to a media love letter.
Times Aug. 8 coverage was part of a media stampede that showed
Gores new television network, Current TV, generating some buzz
and even compared the venture to the billion-dollar success of
Google. Gore was received kid-glove treatment in print and on TV and
only one media outlet mentioned that he had received aid from media
baron Rupert Murdoch whose Fox News Channel Gore once called a
fifth column, as Time explained.
Journalists referred to the former presidential
candidate as reincarnated in two separate publications, and Time
magazines story Al Gore, Businessman called him a businessman
who is out to change the world. Time gave fellow Democrat John
Edwards similar treatment during the 2004 campaign.
A new Business & Media Institute analysis showed that most of
the major media have done the Current TV story in some positive
fashion in the months surrounding the August 2005 launch. CNN went
so far as to ask the opinion of former Gore-Lieberman 2000 campaign
manager, Donna Brazile, without mentioning her connection. All they
included was this Joe Johns comment, So Donna Brazile, you know Al
Gore very well. Whats he up to with this?
Brazile was true to form and called the network a
great new concept and a great venture. Johns, adding to the
reincarnation theme, said, Hes sort of remaking himself, once
again. That wasnt the only spin included in the Gore coverage.
Here are a few highlights:
- Liberal
virtues: The Time story, by Karen Tumulty and Laura Locke,
mentioned Gores investment partnership, Generation. Generation
aims to find and invest in companies that will pay off by virtue
of enlightened approaches on energy, the environment, employee
relations and other policies that will benefit society as well as
their bottom lines. Thats not a Generation press release
thats directly from the story. There was no explanation of the
enlightened approaches, but its safe to guess they reflected
ideas the reporters agreed with.
- It wont be
politicalmaybe: Time admitted that nearly all of Gores
investors are also big Democratic contributors but relayed
Gores claim that there is close to zero-percent chance that he
would run for office. Other media made a similar claim, although
an Aug. 1 Washington Post story by Ariana Eunjung Cha said
otherwise. According to Cha, the viewer-contributed videos will
be opinionated. Bias and opinions in these citizen reports
will not only be tolerated but desirable, said Cha.
- No bias at all.Newsweek
reporter Brad Stone downplayed the potential left-wing politics of
the new network in his April 8 report, repeating Gores claim that
he had no interest in that. Stone disclosed that he had applied
for a job with the 1992 Senate campaign of Gore partner Joel
Hyatt, the former national finance chairman for the Democratic
Party in 2000. Stones comments started out negative, but quickly
went far the other way. This week, I told former Vice President
Al Gore why his new cable-television venture would never work,
Stone began. But first, an admission. When I first saw Google in
the 90s, I thought to myself: What, another search engine?
- Nothing new:
This wasnt the first time the media welcomed Gore with open arms.
The Aug. 8, 2000, CBS Evening News said of Gore and his running
mate Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), They represent the future, not
the past, and they are the ticket of high moral standards most in
tune with real mainstream America.
- Age before
legality: Several media made references to the youth of the
Current TV staff, but none of them raised any questions about it.
As Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune put it in a July 31
story, But the network is selling itself as the first national
network created by, for and with an 18-to-34-year-old audience.
Cha also focused on the youth of the staff, without questioning
it: The company is filled with promising but as yet mostly
unknown media figures; most of Currents 120-plus staffers are
under 40. Cha raised no questions about age discrimination. She
might have simply referred to another Washington Post piece from
June 14, 2005, by Abigail Trafford: But the ism of age goes on,
unchecked. Geezer-bashing is socially acceptable. Trafford went
on to say, Ageism also harms younger people by exacerbating their
fears of growing older.
- You gotta be
hip: The Washington Posts Aug. 1, 2005, Ariana Eunjung Cha
article focused on how Gore was reincarnated to a man in a hip,
open-at-the-collar, all-black ensemble. When Gore said the
project has been a blast, Cha commented, A 21-year-old hipster
couldnt have said it better.
