05/05/2004: 
Breaking News
The Unthinkable Has Happpened: Al Gore Has Bought NewsWorld International
I will don the traditional robes of mourning now, but first, I would like to share with you a piece I wrote when the Athenaeum first reported this news story.
Hey Al Gore, Don't Steal My News Channel!
A group led by former Vice President Al Gore has purchased Newsworld International (NWI) from EU conglomerate Vivendi Universal this week for a reported $70 million dollars.
News world International is on pretty much 24/ 7 in my apartment. This channel plays news shows from all over the world, and its hourly news updates focus on world events. Run by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, it is an informative and mind- expanding channel. Unfortunately, it is slow- paced, the news set is bare bones, and they have no advertising, so now Al Gore, the sore loser of American history, is going to turn this beautiful channel, which I cite as one of the few reasons I pay for cable, into some horrible 24- hour response to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh? Is there a need for another ADD- ridden news channel? I love the slow pace and thoughtful commentary on obscure subjects! I love NWI precisely because it is the anti- CNN! It is troubling that a pure news channel is not profitable in today's business climate.
Will Gore abandon the current NWI format? You would think a liberal like Gore would think that the high level of intellectual discourse broadcast daily on NWI should be taken to the masses. If it was made widely available since it is currently available to 20 million homes in the US, it might actually compete. But no, the Als – Gore, and his fellow freaknik Franken- think that the only way to fight back against the vast right- wing media conspiracy is to beat them at their own game by responding with the same level of low- brow content but with a "liberal" slant. Al Gore reportedly admires the reportage of MTV News, and aims to target his network at twenty- somethings, no doubt hoping they will not remember him supporting his wife Tipper Gore's 1980s crusade to label offensive albums with "Parental Advisory" stickers. Hey Al, guess what? You have overlooked the fact that you are turning your back on a small but dedicated and intelligent audience to further pollute the airwaves not with journalism, but bald- faced pro- Democratic propaganda. Once NWI goes off the air in its current form, this 20- something will probably disengage completely from getting the majority of my news through television. The Internet, that thing you claim to have invented, is where the future of journalism lies, not in lowest- common denominator cable news that abandons objectivity for partisanship. And Al, when this liberal- leaning ADD- "news" network fails to unseat Bush due to the power of your bad karma, when you leave, give the keys to the studio back to my favorite NWI anchorman Ron Izawa.
More
GORE LAUNCHES CABLE NEWS NETWORKBy ALAN SAYRE
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - An investor group headed by former Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday it is buying a cable channel and launching a news network that will offer "irreverent and bold" programming for young adults.
The group is buying the Newsworld International channel from Vivendi Universal Entertainment for an undisclosed sum. The deal with Gore's company, INdTV Holdings, was announced during a cable industry convention in New Orleans.
Newsworld International is a 24-hour channel broadcasting international news produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. It is seen in about 17 million North American households, according to Vivendi.
Gore said the network will be "an independent voice in this industry" with a primary target audience of people between 18 and 34 "who want to learn about the world in a voice they recognize and a view they recognize as their own."
"This is not going to be a liberal network, a Democratic network or a political network," Gore said at a news conference.
The programming will continue to be provided by Canadian Broadcasting Corp., officials said.
Gore will serve as chairman of the board and said he will devote most of his time to the network. Also announcing the acquisition was Joel Hyatt, an entrepreneur and former finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee who lost a bid for the Senate in Ohio in 1994.
"Having learned from both the successes and failures of other cable networks, we are confident this is a winning concept," said Hyatt, who will serve as chief executive.
Hyatt said the programming will include traditional news formats like documentaries. But he used words like "irreverent and bold" to describe the tone of the programming, which he said will include news comedies and other "formats you haven't seen before."
He would give no specifics but added: "Our goal is not to be the 251st cable network that looks like the others."
Gore said he and Hyatt had met a lot of young, creative people "who need a venue to compete in a meritocracy of ideas."
The former vice president, who was once a newspaper reporter in Tennessee, said he is enjoying life outside politics and does not foresee running for office again, although he would not rule it out.
Gore would not say how much INdTV paid for the network, which is currently carried by DirecTV, Time Warner and in some areas by Comcast.
INdTV said its acquisition was financed by equity capital firms and individual investors.
4 Annotations Submitted
Wednesday the 5th of May, santo26 noted:
Here is an email of support that I just sent of to NWI:
To: nwifeedback@nwitv.com
From: santo26@hotmail.com
Re: Your New Ownership
To whom it may concern,
I am a huge fan of NewsWorld International in its current form, and I hope you do not change one bit! I got digital cable in my home about two years ago and discovered NWI one night, and I have been a huge fan ever since. I am not exaggerating when I say NWI is on almost all the time in my house. While I have heard your new owner Al Gore plans to change the programming to target twenty- somethings, I want you to know that I am one of them, and I think that it would be a horrible mistake to make any changes to the current format. I for one appreciate the foreign broadcasts (espectially CBC's "The National," with DWI a close second). I appreciate the International News First segments and the long, in- depth news stories. And most of all, I appreciate Ron Izawa. Please forward this letter to him as I want him to know he has many fans out there!
I do not understand why Al Gore would want to change what I consider to be the best cable news network on cable television. The level of discourse on NewsWorld International is precisely what I want and expect, but so rarely find today. Gore has promised that the network will be "independent" yet still wants to compete against the coarse level of discourse you find on CNN and Fox News. I think the best way to compete against these partisan outlets is to have NWI continue to do things the way you always have, yet bring it to a wider audience. I sincerely believe that if NWI in its current form was as widely available as the other cable news networks, it would compete and ultimately triumph in the ratings.
People are tired of patrisanship passing for journalism. NewsWorld International is journalism. Mr. Gore, I beg of you, don't use NWI as a pawn in some revenge scheme. Bring NWI as- is to a wider audience and I know you will be pleasantly surprised at the positive response it will get from those who want news and not opinion.
Thank you for your time, and thank you to all the staff at NewsWorld International who have worked so hard. I want you to know you have some true fans out there who will miss you very much.
Sincerely,
santo26@hotmail.com
Wednesday the 5th of May, crazyNWIfaninla noted:
I've been pissed that I don't get it with my evil dish. Now I can only hope that it don't become the peace queer network
Wednesday the 5th of May, Froman noted:
yeah, people who favor peace over war are such "queers" ... way to raise the intellectual bar there.
What really scares me is that he intends to focus on a younger target audience. We all know how hip Gore is ... he's not exactly down with the youth so any attempt to connect may be a sad failure, causeing him to lose even more credibility and more viewers.
Wednesday the 5th of May, David Burt, Senior Producer, NWI noted:
I received the following email this afternoon:
To: santo26@hotmail.com
From: David Burt, Senoir Producer, NWI
Re:NWI Sale
Brian ,
Thanks for your email.
Thanks for your compliments.
We at NWI don't know what the future holds.
But for now we've been told it's business as usual .
So please keep watching and we'll see
what happens.
Thanks again ,
David Burt
Senior Producer NWI
