Why Al Gore sold Current TV to Al Jazeera

The Qatar-based media giant is buying its way into 40 million U.S. households. But why is Gore cashing out to an oil emirate?

Al Jazeera English Channel staff prepare for a broadcast in the Doha news room in Qatar in 2006.
(Image credit: AP Photo/ Hamid Jalaudin)

It's easy enough to understand why Al Jazeera agreed to buy Current TV, the cable network owned by former Vice President Al Gore and business partner Joel Hyatt, on Wednesday: The Qatar-based pan-Arab media conglomerate has struggled to gain access to American viewers, and the acquisition of Current TV — to be shut down and replaced by a new channel based in New York, provisionally named Al Jazeera America — will pipe it into some 40 million U.S. homes. That will put it ahead of its nearest foreign rival, BBC World News, which reaches 25 million American TV sets. Al Jazeera, in announcing the deal, didn't say how much it is paying for the little-watched Current, but The New York Times says the price is about $500 million.

It's less clear why Gore agreed to sell his 7-year-old media experiment to an Arabic news giant that has struggled mightily to convince Americans, U.S. cable providers, and, especially, politicians that it isn't a propaganda outfit for the Gulf emirate that finances it, much less jihadists. Time Warner, for example, said it will be dropping Current-Al Jazeera "as quickly as possible." And it's not like Gore didn't have other offers from less exotic (if not much less controversial) suitors:

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.