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News & ArtsThursday, January 31, 2013
TV / Enviro Watch Jon Stewart Grill Al Gore on Fossil-Fuel Hypocrisy
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Jan 31, 2013 at 10:36 AM
Jon Stewart did a tremendous job last night with what could easily have been a puffball interview to promote a book. He kept asking Al Gore how he could justify taking so much money—Gore might be wealthier than Mitt Romney now—from the fossil fuel industry when he sold Current TV to Al Jazeera. Gore never produced a satisfactory answer. Here's Politico's quick-cut of the interview:
And you can watch an extended interview on the Daily Show's site. If you'd like to ask him these questions yourself, Gore will be reading from his new book in Seattle on Valentine's Day, though the reading is sold out.
25
You guys do realize that if you run a talk show and are hostile and unrelenting to all your guests you will not be able to bill guests anymore, right?
To some degree, you have to treat them all with kid gloves or smiles. It's TV dammit, don't take it so seriously.
To some degree, you have to treat them all with kid gloves or smiles. It's TV dammit, don't take it so seriously.
24
If Jon Stewart (brother of the head of the NYSE) wasn't producing a puff piece he would have had some questions about the Gore family's massive holdings in Occidental Petroleum, or how he stood reap billions through the (defunct for now) Chicago Climate Exchange, the hub of the mandatory cap-and-trade carbon trading scam that was intended to set up a new frontier of derivative fraud for Goldman and their buddy's.
23
It is a strange situation--AJ is probably the world's best major news outlet, (better than BBC) as for as international coverage and providing different perspectives. Residents of the oily dictatorship of Qatar might find it strange though. I wonder if there was a "Qatar Spring" if AJ would cover it....
20
Isn't that a bit like saying that it's hypocritical to be against global warming and eating cous cous?
18
I never got the adoration of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. They are funny much of the time and many times right on the money but at the end of the day they are nothing but well paid corporate tools of the corporation that owns Comedy Central.
We should stop putting those two on an ivory tower.
We should stop putting those two on an ivory tower.
17
@14 the US military. They have some of the highest usage levels of alternative energy - fuel cells powered by wind/solar splitting H2O, portable wind farms, solar cells for comm gear, stuff like that.
Now you hate the US military?
Figures ...
Now you hate the US military?
Figures ...
16
Look, to everyone getting down on Gore and his high GHG lifestyle, just remember a lot of your retirement funds are invested in "energy".
Coal.
Oil.
Cracking for shale oil.
Yeah, you're soaking in GHG too.
Coal.
Oil.
Cracking for shale oil.
Yeah, you're soaking in GHG too.
13
As I tweeted last night, watching that interview, I was remembered why Al Gore "lost" to such an imbecile in 2004. Even when I totally, desperately agree with him on an issue, he can come across like such a jerk.
I don't think it's fair, but I'd forgotten how true it is.
I don't think it's fair, but I'd forgotten how true it is.
12
It's a stupid point though because 95% of all economic activity in any country is ultimately powered by fossil fuels. If he sold it to an American company would he be equally at fault for doing business with a company that uses trucks, planes, and electricity that all come from fossil fuels? If Al Jazeera were shilling for the oil industry that would be one thing, but just because they indirectly profit from it means nothing; we all do.
11
It was one thing for Stewart to ask that question, and he got an answer. To keep harping on was a bit juvenile. Stewart, as much as I love him, sometimes gets some thought stuck in his brain and just cannot accept an answer he doesn't agree with. Sadly, as a poster mentioned above, that never happens with conservatives. With them he usually just lofts a few softballs, yucks it up, and becomes buddies with them. Can't he just pretend that some of the conservatives coming on his show these days are Tucker Carlson?
I have tickets to see Gore in Atlanta. I can't wait.
I have tickets to see Gore in Atlanta. I can't wait.
10
A) Since when are we responsible for the acts of the people that we sell things too? He's not selling missile secrets to China. What are we afraid that Qatar will suddenly be able to do now that they own Current.
B) Al Jazeera covers the perils of climate change quite well when compared to ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, BBC, etc. It's almost like they have some sort of wall between the journalism they produce and the financials interests of their owners. How novel.
This 'controversy' is just typical Beltway village idiocy.
B) Al Jazeera covers the perils of climate change quite well when compared to ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, BBC, etc. It's almost like they have some sort of wall between the journalism they produce and the financials interests of their owners. How novel.
This 'controversy' is just typical Beltway village idiocy.
9
Oh yeah, fucking right. If Current hadn't been sold, climate change would have been averted. This is Jon Stewart's version of false equivalency. I guess everyone has to play the Murdoch's advocate.
8
Gore said in response that Al Jazeera has had better coverage on the topic than any other network, and he thought that outweighed the fact that it's owned by oil magnates, implying that the bosses don't exert editorial control on this topic, at least not yet. In addition, those same people are making investments into renewable energy for the future.
His justifications could certainly be countered (though on my part, by only baseless assertions and speculation), but that's still not a satisfactory answer?
His justifications could certainly be countered (though on my part, by only baseless assertions and speculation), but that's still not a satisfactory answer?
7
If you want to affect positive change in America, everyone knows you have to be Ghandhi & Mother Teresa's lovechild raise by MLK. Otherwise you're a hypocrite and your cause is considered a hoax.
Doesn't Al Gore know the rules?
Doesn't Al Gore know the rules?
6
So Al Gore just stole a bunch of money from the oil industry by tricking them into exchanging it for a useless TV network that no-one watches?
I don't see the problem with this.
Also, he's correct in his assessment of Al Jazeera's environmental coverage. I doubt any other network would've been as pro-environment as AJ after a sale.
I don't see the problem with this.
Also, he's correct in his assessment of Al Jazeera's environmental coverage. I doubt any other network would've been as pro-environment as AJ after a sale.
5
I watched the whole extended interview, and though Jon was right to needle him, Gore made clear he made the right decision. There was NO option that on balance could have been considered more "sustainable" than Al-Jazeera. None.
Gore's goal was to keep Current alive by finding a buyer, one that not only would align closely with his network's mission but have a strong prospect of not folding on its own any time soon.
Name me a SINGLE willing buyer for Current that would have been even HALF as able to offer both of those elements as Al-Jazeera English was.
A deal needed to be done. Media ships are sinking all around, and Gore better than anyone knows the importance of a solid platform for a sustained voice on climate change coverage.
I think he did great. Yes, he made a mint himself, but he put his own money behind founding it, I have no problem with that. And that this deal strengthens Al-Jazeera English's ties with the right kind of U.S. media power - I think it really helps solidify that Al-Jazeera did the right thing in creating Al-Jazeera English and setting it off in the new, leftward direction it did.
Win-win-win.
Gore's goal was to keep Current alive by finding a buyer, one that not only would align closely with his network's mission but have a strong prospect of not folding on its own any time soon.
Name me a SINGLE willing buyer for Current that would have been even HALF as able to offer both of those elements as Al-Jazeera English was.
A deal needed to be done. Media ships are sinking all around, and Gore better than anyone knows the importance of a solid platform for a sustained voice on climate change coverage.
I think he did great. Yes, he made a mint himself, but he put his own money behind founding it, I have no problem with that. And that this deal strengthens Al-Jazeera English's ties with the right kind of U.S. media power - I think it really helps solidify that Al-Jazeera did the right thing in creating Al-Jazeera English and setting it off in the new, leftward direction it did.
Win-win-win.
4
"What does Al Gore's personal choices have to do with the science and reality of climate change? "
That's what I say every time I jump in my SUV and cut down the bike lanes to get to Seatac for a flight to Mexico for a week's vacation.
That's what I say every time I jump in my SUV and cut down the bike lanes to get to Seatac for a flight to Mexico for a week's vacation.
2
I hope someone grills Jon Stewart for the softball interview he did with Simpson a few months ago over Social Security reform.
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