Gore to Martin: Cool It

When most people think of Al Gore they think of his crusade against Global Warming. However, Gore has long been involved with issues of media and the internet. As a member of Congress he was an important supporter of the development of the internet, he has served on Apple's board of directors, and he had that little documentary he made a while back.

Yesterday Gore was talking about another one of his media ventures, Current TV, which is a user-created content network which has gotten a lot of attention since launching two years ago. Interestingly, Gore tied the importance of new outlets for communities to have a voice, like his network, to the further consolidation of the media. In fact, in his remarks he took direct aim at FCC chairman Kevin Martin's plan to relax the cross-ownership ban.

This is from a recent article about his talk:

"Taking a swipe at the U.S. media congloms, he said that TV in the last few years has become dominated by fewer and fewer studios, thus narrowing the control of, and the funnel for, news.

Current TV, he argued, has an architecture that invites interactivity and participatory connections. (He said he did not agree with FCC commissioner Kevin Martin on plans to further loosen media cross-ownership rules.)"

Read the whole article here.