Al Gore’s ‘Current TV’ Debacle

Current TV’s core failure was the choice by its founder Al Gore to avoid political conflict in 2005 when President George W. Bush was near the height of his powers. That act of cowardice made the “progressive” network largely irrelevant to the biggest battles of the last decade, says Robert Parry.

Al Gore’s soon-to-be-defunct Current TV should serve as a case study for American progressives on how not to construct a media outlet. It was a failure in nearly all respects, with possibly its only lasting contribution the fact that its sale to Al Jazeera may finally give that important media voice from the Islamic world a foothold in the United States.

The biggest error committed by Gore and his partner Joel Hyatt occurred at Current’s founding in 2004-05 when the project intentionally ducked what was then the most important fight underway for the future of America, whether President George W. Bush’s strategy for a permanent Republican majority would go unchallenged.

Gore specifically swore off any political leanings for the new network, vowing that it would be an “independent voice” focused on the 18-to-34 demographic by giving them “a voice they recognize and a view they recognize as their own.” The idea was to present an MTV with a little more social conscience.

Gore and Hyatt also located their new network in San Francisco, a pleasant place to live but, frankly, a news backwater, 3,000 miles away – and three hours behind – the news centers of New York and Washington. In placing its headquarters in the Bay Area, Current TV followed the tendency of other progressive outlets to choose that gentler location at the rear rather than to fight it out in the trenches on the front lines.

So, as the American people were facing one of the most severe threats to their political future – a brazen strategy by Karl Rove and other Republican operatives to seize total control and to veer the country off in a violent and cruel right-wing direction – the former Vice President and Democratic standard-bearer from 2000 consciously sought to avoid political conflict for his fledgling network.

Even if that had been a sound business strategy, which it wasn’t, it represented an act of cowardice. In 2005, when Current went on the air, the American people desperately needed a courageous voice to challenge Bush’s abuses of power, including his neoconservative war of aggression in Iraq and his assault on fundamental constitutional protections, such as the right of habeas corpus and prohibitions against “cruel and unusual punishments,” i.e. torture. Bush and the Right also were contemptuous about the science of global warming and other reality-based threats.

Not only could Gore’s network have engaged aggressively on those political battle fronts, it could have provided important historic information, including evidence about broader Republican abuses of political power, from the days of Sen. Joe McCarthy through President Richard Nixon to the crimes of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, such as their tolerance of cocaine trafficking by the Nicaraguan Contra rebels.

It may seem odd today, since President George W. Bush is widely reviled as a dismal failure, a politician not even welcome at the Republican National Convention. But eight years ago, he headed a fearsome political juggernaut that scared many people into silence, especially anyone who wished to maintain “credibility” within the mainstream.

So, it was left to a handful of underfunded Internet sites, including our own Consortiumnews.com, to explain what was happening within the U.S. political structure, to challenge the conventional wisdom on the Iraq War, and to provide the necessary historical context on how the country had lost its way. In those crucial years, Gore’s Current TV siphoned off millions of dollars in scarce media money while producing very little that was cutting edge regarding the fight for America’s political future.

Ironically, it was an outlet of General Electric, a founding member of the Military-Industrial Complex, that seized on the media opening that Gore had disdained.

MSNBC, another struggling cable outlet, had tried for a while to out-fox Fox News from the Right. In the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003, MSNBC dumped the popular Phil Donahue, who had dared to allow some anti-war voices on his talk show. Then, during the invasion, MSNBC produced glowing propaganda videos of American troops “liberating” Iraq, just like Fox was doing.

MSNBC, like other mainstream outlets, carefully censored out images of dead Iraqi civilians and wounded children at overflowing hospitals, so as not to dampen the jingoistic hysteria that was considered ratings gold. However, MSNBC executives soon learned that Fox had cornered the market on conservative viewers, leaving the wannabe super-patriots at MSNBC looking for another strategy.

That strategy emerged through the singular voice of Keith Olbermann, a former sports broadcaster who transformed his MSNBC show “Countdown,” which premiered almost at the same time as the Iraq War, into must-see TV for Americans uneasy about the direction that Bush was taking the country.

Though a temperamental personality, Olbermann demonstrated the courage to take on the Bush administration and Fox News – and showed that his pugnacious though erudite style could work even amid the political conformity that dominated the early-to-mid part of the last decade. Every night, Olbermann chided Bush’s triumphant “Mission Accomplished” declaration by counting how many days the war had continued after that moment of bravado.

Olbermann’s ratings success convinced NBC Universal to expand its liberal-oriented evening programming, making MSNBC a counterpoint to Fox News and leaving CNN’s attempts at “even-handedness” looking wimpy and irrelevant.

Repeated clashes with management led Olbermann to depart MSNBC in January 2011, but his legacy was lasting and profound. By then, Bush was considered one of the worst presidents in U.S. history, the Iraq War was acknowledged to be a disaster, and MSNBC was the clear choice for millions of Americans tired of Fox’s right-wing propaganda and CNN’s phony “balance.”

It was only after Olbermann left MSNBC – and after the ugly trench warfare with the Bush-Rove-Fox machine was largely over – that Gore and Current TV decided to abandon their MTV-with-a-conscience format and opt for more hard-edged political programming. Current hired Olbermann to head its news division and to continue hosting his show, but he quickly grew alienated by the poor production values and left in a huff in March 2012.

The hard truth about Gore’s Current TV is that it missed its historic moment, a chance to truly fight for America’s political future. Gore and the network thought they could do good by not engaging the powerful forces that were intent on crushing the nation’s progressive tendencies and its democratic principles.

While they did have a keen idea about certain destinations they absolutely had to explore, they surrendered to nature's emotional gravity and allowed themselves to be sidetracked from time to time. Along the way, Ning and Pamela discussed ideas and made decisions based on what they felt like doing at that very moment. "Some places we decided to stay longer because we liked it, others we cut short because there was nothing much to do there," Pamela explained.

Travelling and taking a holiday are, Ning said, entirely different experiences. Having to make decisions, having no strict itinerary, and relying on the locals made Ning and Pamela's trip one of a kind. Their experiences ranged from exhilarating moments like witnessing a breathtaking sunrise at Haleakala volcano in Maui, surprising encounters like being so high up on the mountain that their bag of chips exploded, memorable chances like taking a picture with the Queen Mother of Bhutan, and difficult times like seeing chickens, which had travelled with them for four days being killed and cooked into a meal right in front of their eyes.

Their trip, or an escape from ordinary life, rather, inspired and attracted a lot of viewers who felt entertained by and somewhat involved in their experiences. As they moved along on their trip, they gained more and more followers. Then, people started suggesting places for them to go, gave them useful information, and even offered their generosity. A Twitter friend of Pamela's saw her tweet that she was in Honolulu and asked her if the two would like to go skydive, as she knew a guy who works in Skydive Hawaii. Within an hour of saying yes to the offer on Twitter, they were strapped up for their first extreme aerial experience.

"We were also offered a place to stay in Boston by a friend of a friend on Facebook, Dan Foley, who is a clown by profession. We stayed with him for a week in Boston, and even went for his show. He also took us kayaking on the Charles River. It was beautiful," Pamela recalled. Taking an accommodation offer from a stranger might seem like a dangerous thing to do, but on this, Pamela said women's intuition helps decide who to trust.

Since they gained popularity, Ning and Pamela have also used their social media outlets for marketing and publicity. "I think many of our sponsors came onboard to sponsor car rental, apparel, shoes, and even coffee, because we had a strong online presence," Pamela said.

The only popular platform they refused to use was Foursquare, for safety reasons. "We didn't want people to know where we were, real time, for safety reasons. After all, we were two women on the road and we didn't know who was following us! It could be the guy in the next table!" Pamela said jokingly.

Soderstrom was born and raised in Langdon, N.D. Following college, where she majored in arts and home economics, and marriage to her husband Chuck, they moved to Minot where she taught home economics and art in Berthold. They soon moved to Devils Lake in the early 1980s, and she took a job Great Plains Lumberyard designing kitchens. She worked there for about three years before Soderstrom said she decided she wanted to do something different and own her own business. She purchased Creative Impressions, which fit her "love of sewing and designing," in a location near the LaMotte's store. She said the business was "much smaller then."

The store moved to multiple locations over the next 20-plus years, including into buildings that now house Bremer Bank, Lottas and Boots & Heels. In 2005, Soderstrom said they "grew out of what we had" and moved into Creative Impression's current location at 423 4th Ave NE. Soderstrom said the space also allowed the store to accommodate all of its product and services, which had expanded over the years. She said they often added additional machinery as they moved into new locations, including a silk screening machine and an embroidery machine. Eventually she said they added a four-head embroidery machine.

When asked what she thought about the changes in downtown Devils Lake in the last 29 years, Soderstrom said "things really changed when Walmart came in. I was there when it (downtown) was a real small town with Mom and Pop stores." She did note that things seem to be changing for the better in recent years in downtown Devils Lake, with the "nice addition" of some new locally owned stores.

One of the things Soderstrom said she enjoyed most about owning and working in Creative Impressions was the "one on one" interaction with customers on a daily basis. She also had kind words to say about her employees.

"I had lots of good employees there," she said. "There were many wonderful people."
She noted two long-term employees who worked for her for more than 20 years and helped her considerably - Bev Schuler, who did silk screening, and Dennis Strong, who worked in the embroidery department and "fixed any machine I had."