Current TV // Current TV

Gore, and the c u r r e n t. . . . scene

Is Keith Olbermann the Last Hope for Gore's Current TV? - The Daily Beast from-... more

remanns
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Current UK's Chief Executive Jane Mote on BSkyB closing us down: "New doc voices need an outlet"

On the 11th of January 2012, Current UK announced that BSkyB had withdrawn support for the channel and that we are now very likely to stop broadcasting by mid March 2012.
In her article in Broadcast magazine our Cheif Executive Jane Mote asks: "what channel will give producers the freedom to be bold now?"

New doc voices need an outlet
The barrier to entry has come down firmly against fresh documentary voices in the British TV industry with Sky’s decision to pull funding from Current TV at the 11th hour, with no notice or negotiation.
The UK’s only dedicated documentary channel – which is rooted among nearly 300 new storytellers nurtured over many years – is almost certain to close.
There’s no point in whingeing. Of course Sky has the power to do this and, frankly, independent channels like ours remain small, leaving us helpless to take it on. So much for plurality.
But what happens next to the new voices that struggle to get a platform on the hundreds of remaining channels in the UK? Morgan Spurlock will be okay; he’s a big enough name to get a job with McDonald’s – sorry, I mean Sky Atlantic – and I’m certainly not going to judge. He needs to earn his crust after all.
But those Brits starting out will have to try to get in on the reduced strands on the PSBs, where competition is so fierce and format freedom so rare that is hard to get your story heard – especially for the outspoken and opinionated, who may not be commercially valuable and are too problematic for those worried about igniting political interference.
Our supporters, viewers and producers alike are worried that there is nowhere left for (using their words) “brave, challenging, thought-provoking, unbiased and risk-taking TV”. No doubt Sky will create or buy an ‘off-the-rack’ channel that purports to do something similar. But Current’s roots run deep in the British documentary ecology and supporters believe it cannot be replicated at a stroke.
Andy Glynne, chief executive of the Documentary Filmmakers Group, the biggest UK collective of documentary film-makers, says he’s turned from being a loyal supplier to Current to being an advocate – for two reasons. First, unlike many broadcasters, we don’t pay lip service to new talent.
“Current supports rather than intimidates, trusts rather prescribes, and allows genuinely new film-makers from all walks of life to get started,” he told me. Second, he believes Current takes risks with form and content, allowing a freedom to both explore and defy convention with docs.
“It’s this risk-taking, and the inclusion of authorial voices, that seems to be ebbing slowly out of the genre, especially in today’s leanings towards the format,” he says.
His views are echoed in so many different voices and styles on our message boards. There is a real sense of grief here. Viewers and producers have lost a home, a place where they were guaranteed a gem of a story or a sympathetic ear to listen to them and nurture their stories.
Their grief offers hope. We are down but not out because we’ve sown seeds of belief that TV can be truly open to new voices, ideas and opinions.
We have 20,000 Twitter followers and some very loyal supporters and viewers – revolutions have been won with less. The important thing is, as Bob Helvey says in Ruaridh Arrow’s film How to Start a Revolution: “As long as we don’t surrender, we never lose.”
It’s not over until the fat lady sings and I am willing to put on a few pounds if it means regaining the ground pulled from under democratic TV’s feet.
//Ends

Subscribers to Broadcast magazine can read the article here. On the 11th of January 2012, Current UK announced that BSkyB had withdrawn support... more

CurrentUK
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9 days ago
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3 comments

Modern mismatched manuscript molested...By: Christopher Stephen Cluney

Amplified orbital overt apparitions overflow obsessive braggart beaten believable... more

Day2Day1nSociety
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12 days ago
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1 comment

Edge of Glory-DJ Mona-lisa (The Famous Story about Child Molestation)

A must see video for parents and guardians of children: http://youtu.be/PwOlEkXmpR0

DJMonaLisa
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16 days ago
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0 comments

Supporter Debate - Why Not?

I think it would be a fantastic idea to have at least one debate among supporters of... more

HeatherOK
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23 days ago
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Silencing Donahue and Anti-War Voices

I would like to see Donahue's voice at Current TV. Voices like Donahue's should be heard. The Iran war rhetoric needs balance. We can't let them march us into another war. We are not using toy soldiers, they are our sons and daughters.

By Dennis J. Bernstein

From the early 1970s to 1985, The Phil Donahue Show was broadcast nationally from Chicago. Donahue also co-hosted a compelling political talk show — with Vladimir Pozner of the former Soviet Union — called This Week with Pozner and Donahue from 1991-1994.

In July 2002, MSNBC hired him to host a free-wheeling TV talk show, which hyped the return of Donahue. However, eight months later during the run-up to war with Iraq, behind-the-scenes pressure from the Bush White House — and a groundswell of conservative outrage — led MSNBC to give the anti-war TV talk-show host the boot.

Talk show host Phil Donahue

It mattered little that Donahue had won nine Daytime Emmys and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1996. MSNBC claimed Donahue’s ratings were too low to justify keeping the show on the air, even though Donahue was the highest rated show on MSNBC at the time it was canceled and beat out Chris Matthews‘s Hardball, which was then on CNBC.

After Donahue was cancelled, AllYourTV.com reported it had obtained a copy of an internal NBC memo that stated Donahue should be fired because he would be a “difficult public face for NBC in a time of war.”

We caught up with Donahue at the campaign headquarters of Norman Solomon for Congress, in San Rafael, California, about 20 miles north of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. He had come into town to show his moving film “Body of War” and to campaign for Solomon

DB: Phil Donahue has come into town to show a very compelling film that he produced called “Body of War” in 2007. It’s a very thoughtful film about a young vet, named Thomas Young, who was paralyzed in Iraq, and went through a transformation. … It wasn’t meant to be a dogmatic attack at policy but it turned into something that made you really think about war and peace, and why we send young people off to war.

So, in that context, we’ve been at many wars for a long time here. We’re thinking that there’s some end to the U.S. involvement in the war in Iraq. But now, everything looks like, and it’s getting worse that there might be some kind of tangle, and a very terrible tangle, with Iran. Your response to current policy, war policy, and your thoughts on that.

PD: Well, Rick Santorum is scaring me. He’s got both guns out. The Straits of Hormuz, if they [the Iranians] block that, you can see how we get into war. That’s one of the reasons why I admire Norman so much, he is making the point that it’s much too easy for a president to go to war.I would like to see Donahue's voice at Current TV. Voices like Donahue's... more

Conniepae
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25 days ago
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Keith Olberman makes up with Current TV; will anchor nighttime election show

From the sound of it, Current might just be the only progressive network in this... more

nardo1224
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25 days ago
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5 comments

Current Censors need to loosen up: I thought Current TV was against SOPA & PIPA!

As allowed, I placed links in blog entries to blogs where either full videos and... more

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26 days ago
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15 comments

If you missed a Cenk Uygur program or need a transcript, please visit the Barefoot Accountant's blog for some full videos of certain segments of the show.

If you missed a Cenk Uygur program or need a transcript, please visit the Barefoot... more

progressivecpa
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27 days ago
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LA COP PUNCHES SPECIAL NEEDS GIRL IN THE FACE ON A BUS !

LA COP PUNCHES SPECIAL NEEDS GIRL IN THE FACE ON A BUS! Watch The Video.. Police... more

Wizzane
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30 days ago
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8 comments

Statement: Current UK due to close in March

Current UK has announced today that BSkyB has withdrawn support for the channel and it... more

CurrentUK
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30 days ago
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43 comments

HERE for KEITH...

Trying to reinforce he can look GREAT w/o the tie/white shirt look. Pick any of these,... more

LOrion
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Different shade's of gray By: Christopher.S.Cluney

http://www.tumblr.com/blog/day2day1nsociety-Different shade's of gray can turn... more

Day2Day1nSociety
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1 year ago
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Let's have a real debate...

Probably the most boring reality TV show this season is the Republican debates. After the first three episodes, there wasn’t much new information, instead everyone listened for nuances or changed positions. I’m sure Rick Perry would love to remember them but he may have forgotten the third one. They have really been exercises in patience for the vast majority of the electorate because they have not focused on the real issues. Let’s have an honest debate between candidates not coached for soundbites and ridiculous policies designed to excite a base fed with a strictly red meat diet.

I propose that the candidates for Americans Elect hold a debate with the Buddy Roemer, Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, and Rocky Anderson. Let’s get the different parties and their views out there to enlighten the electorate and present valid choices. None of us should be afraid of putting our policies out in the open and getting people to judge them. I even have a proposed forum, TYT/Current TV.

Former VP Al Gore needs to build audience participation in his new venture and a debate hosted by Cenk Ugyer, Keith Olbermann, and a few other worthy parties could really present an informative moment for everyone as well as real entertainment. It might be nice listening to people who did not think US territory extended across the Mediterranean into Israel or that the only way to solve our deficit problems was through tax cuts.

I propose that we hold a webcast between the South Carolina primary and the one in Florida, another mid-February, and then one in mid-March after Super Tuesday. To further broaden the appeal, one of them could be held on the Real News and another on C-Span. Instead of soundbite answers, respondents could be held to a two-minute rule.

This is a year when we need to get a broader picture of whom the electorate can choose from and with the flexibility that the Internet offers, the debaters could simply skype into the event instead of traveling because in the end it is the substance that we want, not the entertainment.

Mike Ballantine is a Green Party candidate for US President on Americans Elect.Probably the most boring reality TV show this season is the Republican debates. After... more

MikeBallantine2012
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Glacial Genesis Gets Glass Guidance by:Christopher Stephen Cluney

General-population greatly gorges grotesque graphic gritty,greedy,gibberish... more

Day2Day1nSociety
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1 month ago
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1 comment

TYT Promo for Current (Democracy is Simple)

Democracy is simple, but only if everyone within that Democracy stays informed enough... more

WolfPacNH
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1 month ago
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Rumors Surface As Keith Olbermann Absent From Iowa Coverage

Keith Olbermann has been noticeably absent from some of Current TV's election... more

LOrion
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1 month ago
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59 comments

WHAT ABOUT KEITH?

I find the fact that Current contines to advertise its political coverage (Politally... more

truthglow
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1 month ago
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William Cooper --UnMasked the JFK Assassination ...

Here's another great lecture by the great author of BEHOLD A PALE HORSE --William... more

Day2Day1nSociety
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1 month ago
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Why Countdown With Keith Olbermann Has Been Broadcasting From A Dark Place

Still waiting for the Current Shopping Network Debut-

Regular viewers of Current TV’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann may have noticed that the progressive newshour has gone dark this week. I don’t mean that host Keith Olbermann has taken to quoting Sylvia Plath and wearing out the grooves on his My Chemical Romance records, I mean he has literally been broadcasting from a dark place. Early on in Monday’s show, technical problems beset the program, and since then, Olbermann has been hosting his show from what appears to be an endless black void. Mediaite has confirmed that Olbermann has not been confined to an interdimensional limbo, nor is he broadcasting from inside Rush Limbaugh‘s head.

I missed Monday’s episode, so when I tuned in Tuesday to see Olbermann lighting a candle at the top of the show, gaping black maw of eternity behind him, I figured it was some in-joke that I had missed the setup to. As it turns out, an on-air technical mishap the night before had forced the host to change locations. Here’s where the problem started, and Olbermann’s candle-lighting gag:

Since then, Olbermann has continued to host the show with that black background, and has taken to cracking wise about the low-tech milieu, making copious references to the DuMont Network. Although born of necessity, the look is oddly, enigmatically compelling, like a living black-velvet Elvis painting, or a newscast from some alienated sci-fi dystopia.

Even more mysterious is the fact that no one seems to have noticed. There was no mention of the change on Olbermann’s Twitter feed, so apparently, his fans took it in stride as well as he did. Maybe it’s my fascination with behind-the-scenes minutiae, but not knowing what could possibly force a 21st century television personality to broadcast from the inside of a sensory deprivation tank was just driving me nuts.

Well, mystery solved. According to Current TV President David Bohrman, “The facility we lease for the production of Countdown has had a series of technical problems. Monday a dimmer rack overheated and blew out the lights, forcing the crew to move to a different part of the set.”

It probably is just me, but I find it amazing that it looks like Olbermann is at the very edge of the universe, when he’s really just a few feet away from his usual set. I’m also fascinated by the fact that the desk Martin Bashir teases his show from looks like it’s a picture on the wall of Tamron Hall‘s studio. No, that’s actually Martin Bashir in there!Still waiting for the Current Shopping Network Debut- Regular viewers of Current... more

punman
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1 month ago
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