...Al Gore and business partner Joel Hyatt...will close the deal to pay around $70 million to French-owned Vivendi Universal this week, making them the owners of the tiny digital-cable channel Newsworld International (NWI), moving Mr. Gore from politics to mini-media-moguldom [LOL!].Read the whole thing...it's hysterical! Question: Will Gore be able to resist the temptation to try making HIMSELF the network star?!It wasn’t easy for Mr. Gore to get his hands on NWI. According to two sources familiar with the situation, Mr. Gore went so far as to seek the influence of French President Jacques Chirac in buying the channel, hoping that Mr. Chirac would aid him in landing a sweetened deal...
For a time, Mr. Gore’s TV channel will maintain its current programming, for which there appears to be a very, very small market. NWI has carriage in about 20 million homes, and packages "foreign newscasts originally broadcast in countries such as Germany, Japan, Canada and the European community," ...
...the channel would... arm kids with cheap digital cameras and empower them to do an end run around the big media. [Gore does "The Blair Witch Project" as news!]