From the WSJ Opinion Archives
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Revenge of the Pod People
Al Gore's suffocating new cable TV network.
The stated premise of Current TV, the new channel co-founded by Al Gore, is that today's youth feel shut out by traditional media and yearn to be seen and heard on a station of their own. If its first few days on the air are a guide, however, Current TV has not yet discovered the magic recipe for sucking in the coveted 18-34 age group. Any adults who were worried that Mr. Gore and his Democratic partners might use their investment to indoctrinate and arm a generation can probably rest easy for now. Newsless, often clueless and usually dull, the new channel is a limp noodle.
Not that it isn't trying hard to pump things up. Words such as freedom, empowerment and revolution poured out of on-air hosts this debut week. We're "a bridge between the power of a generation and a mass outlet for its voice," they intoned. "It's all about being who you are and sharing it with the world." Would-be video contributors were directed to the station's Web site with the entreaty, "Be a citizen-journalist. . . . Everybody has a story to tell that's interesting."
Not really--remember public-access cable? Current TV is slicker than that, and none of its segments--called "pods"--last longer than a few minutes. Right now, in fact, the programming is mostly a barrage of endlessly recycled station promos, ads, hosts gushing about new CDs and DVDs for sale, and inane statistics. Everything is "cool" or, better, "siiiiiiiick."
The content pods, also repeated ad nauseam like CNN items on a foreign hotel-room TV, are thin stuff. Many offer little more than brief action shots of guys doing guy things like base jumping and skateboarding. Some simply showcase "hotties" like the L.A. model who crows: "Apparently, I have the perfect black butt." And then there's visiting "Mentor" Deepak Chopra, dispensing such gems as: "The best way to find out who you are is to ask yourself, 'Who am I?'"
Other pods look suspiciously like infomercials. In one, a guy does little but obsess about Nike Air Jordan sneakers. Another features a company seeking egg donors. If you're a broke college student, a host quips, "Why sling latte when you can score $5,000 giving an egg to a childless couple in need?"
In a uniquely shrewd move, the category of food for serious thought usually comes with spice. For instance, a brief report from India zooms in on details of a cremation--smoldering skull and all. A "flashback" history lesson offers slo-mo film of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981, pithily described for the kiddies as "a bizarre effort to impress Jodie Foster by crazed lunatic and stalker John Hinckley." Alas, "this act of stupidity made the nation feel vulnerable and confused."
So far, there's not much politicking on view. Cheer if you will, but there is absolutely no news in this sterile universe either. In its stead are twice-hourly reports on the results of Google searches for words such as "fights," "create" and "Canadian." The only knowledge to be gleaned from them is what Current TV really thinks of its audience.
For an adult, the effect of watching all this is like being trapped inside the plastic numbers globe at a bingo parlor and getting battered with ping-pong balls until the air runs out and you start to suffocate. Theoretically, younger people like being pelted--short attention spans and all that. Yet boring is boring at any age, and Current TV's nonsense about melding with the Internet in exciting new ways isn't likely to fool anybody for long.
Mr. Gore is said to be actively involved in programming decisions. With luck, he may figure out before it's too late that just because you call something "cool" doesn't make it so.
