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Jesse Walker reports that Al Gore has created a cable channel as hep, engaging, and cutting-edge as the ex-veep himself.
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|8.9.05 @ 3:13PM|#
Al Gore took the initiative in creating cable television.
Somebody had to get that out of the way...
|8.9.05 @ 3:23PM|#
Look out, Jesse. joe is about to jump all over you for mocking Al Gore's sort-of claim of almost inventing the Internet.
|8.9.05 @ 3:24PM|#
Maybe it would have worked better if Gore had done what he did with the internet: lined up the funding, and given the people who were already, on their own, building the architecture the authority and resources to turn it into something big.
|8.9.05 @ 3:25PM|#
Steve,
Do you know anything, at all, about how the internet came to be created?
At all?
|8.9.05 @ 3:30PM|#
IMHO, Gore's best work was on Futurama:
Fry: I guess you want to see my "Fry-hole," then?
Gore: Very much so.
Adam|8.9.05 @ 3:32PM|#
Certainly nobody in the private sector ever would have figured out a way to connect computers. Thank god for Al Gore.
|8.9.05 @ 3:32PM|#
joe,
Wasn't it derived from ARPAnet, the system created by the Department of Defense in 1969? At least that was its precursor; I'm a bit sketchy on what happened after that.
Jesse Walker|8.9.05 @ 3:32PM|#
The best single piece I've seen on Gore's relationship to the early Internet was Virginia Postrel's editorial on the subject, published here in Reason in 1999.
That out of the way, I hope everyone understands that the point of that sentence was to contrast two very different media models, not to reopen the debate over Gore's most infamous laff line.
|8.9.05 @ 3:33PM|#
Mr. Vice President, somebody bought your book!
*Celebrate Good Times, Come On!*
I shall.
|8.9.05 @ 3:36PM|#
This board always reminds me of Nichelle Nichols' Futurama line: "Eternity with nerds. It's the Pasadena Star Trek convention all over again."
|8.9.05 @ 3:36PM|#
Maybe it would have worked better if Gore had done what he did with the internet: lined up the funding, and given the people who were already, on their own, building the architecture the authority and resources to turn it into something big.
Considering ARPAnet was kicking around for almost 20 years before Gore even became a congressman I think its fair to say over the years lots of congress-critters can take credit for "lining up the funding" for the internet. Its not as if voting for funding is some rare event in DC.
|8.9.05 @ 3:40PM|#
That's a pretty good piece by Postrel, but by focusing on the technological side of what Gore's efforts did, it ignores the most important aspect: the subsidies and expanded authority were predicated on the internet being built as a public resource, rather than a connected series of walled-off preserves.
|8.9.05 @ 3:49PM|#
i really for the life of me just cannot understand why people care about what role al gore played in the creation of the internet.
aren't there more important things we can be bitchy about?
|8.9.05 @ 3:50PM|#
He was pretty funny on Leno last night. He seemed far more relaxed.
M1EK|8.9.05 @ 3:58PM|#
Postrel's piece also needs to be taken with a grain of salt considering that Cerf pretty much DOES give Gore the credit for the claim he made in context, which was reasonable, in the sense that any given congressman can claim to have taken the initiative in creating a specified public works project, for instance, without actually welding any of the bolts himself. And people do that stuff all the time.
The internet would not have happened the way it did without Gore. Those of you who think otherwise need to read up.
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh120302.shtml
|8.9.05 @ 3:59PM|#
I'm just waiting to see Al in the new Current TV show "Al Gore reads the Tax Code."
One thing I definitely miss about Clinton, at least the guy could hold an audience. Both previous elections were chock full of snoozers on the oratory front.
Justin Slotman|8.9.05 @ 4:02PM|#
But in any case Current TV has been really terrible so far. It's a horrible marriage of MTV-style hip editing with banal bloggish content.
|8.9.05 @ 4:09PM|#
Yeah, well, Air America wasn't that great on Day 1, either.
|8.9.05 @ 4:16PM|#
He was pretty funny on Leno last night. He seemed far more relaxed.
So was Bob Dole in 1996. Maybe candidates are just too up-tight in general, and would be better off if they'd just loosen up.
The internet would not have happened the way it did without Gore. Those of you who think otherwise need to read up.
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh120302.shtml
The Daily Howler is written by one of Al Gore's college roomates.
More resources at http://www.sethf.com/gore/
And for the record, Gore didn't claim to "invent" the internet.
"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
(CNN. March 9, 1999).
In the context of the time, though -- the dot-com boom of the late 1990s -- it's fair to say that he was trying to take credit for it.
|8.9.05 @ 4:17PM|#
M1EK,
Postrel mentions that Gore was involved in providing funding, and that is in line with what was written in the dailyhowler. Aside from that, Postrel provides a good history of the internet and context, which dailyhowler fails to provide.
Postrel's article is the best I've read; dailyhowler really wasn't worth reading.
|8.9.05 @ 4:19PM|#
Yeah, well, Air America wasn't that great on Day 1, either.
Neither have days 2 though 490.
|8.9.05 @ 4:21PM|#
Joe,
Why dredge up ancient history; let's just let CIA covert ops from SE Asia rest.
|8.9.05 @ 4:23PM|#
joe,
I know a little; when I get a minute, I'll read the Postrel piece. Mostly I know the Wired magazine version, but I don't have it in front of me.
Anyway, I realize that Congress helped in bringing darpa-net to the public, and Al Gore was one main Senators behind it. I don't think that equals "took the initiative in creating the Internet," but I don't really think it matters much. I'm sorry, I just kind of like harassing you whenever you get all holier-than-thou about how Al Gore or whichever senatorial windbag is a Great American.
|8.9.05 @ 4:24PM|#
Deepak Chopra speaking on when bad things happen to good people. Good God. They can get Hillary to discuss her ideas for health care reform after Al finishes reciting the tax code.
Maybe they'll zip things up a bit with Newt's "This I Believe" essay.
|8.9.05 @ 4:24PM|#
Yeah, well, Air America wasn't that great on Day 1, either.
I guess the money they took from the poor kids to upgrade their on-air product hadn't arrived on Day 1.
Now that they have all that tax-exempt money formerly being wasted on poor New York kids, how's it going?
"took the initiative in creating the internet" is an excellent phrase to use if you want to grossly overstate your contribution to the cause. He contributed zero technical knowledge. All he did was carry water for funding. Give the man a freakin' medal.
Maybe even a purple heart. I understand Kerry has a few extras.
|8.9.05 @ 4:27PM|#
OK, I skimmed the Postrel piece. It pretty much jibes with what I knew about the history of the Internet. And it backs up my original idea about why Gore's statement was revealing: only a jackass (read: U.S. Senator) would think that the Internet wasn't created until Congress passed the High Performance Computing Act of 1991.
M1EK|8.9.05 @ 4:40PM|#
In order to complete the RNC talking points, you guys also have to tar Vint Cerf. Get cracking! When people call him "The Father Of The Internet", it's damn clear they're lying, since the Internet isn't human. What a crackpot!
|8.9.05 @ 4:49PM|#
Al Gore? Did all of you miss the fact that frakkin David Neuman is still in a position of power at a media company? Why does this not shake your faith in the market system?
Anon
Matt Welch|8.9.05 @ 5:01PM|#
Anon -- Nice try, but ain't nothing can stick to David Neuman. After this tanks, his next job will be running Time Warner or something.
Matt Welch|8.9.05 @ 5:03PM|#
I wrote a profile on Internet co-father Leonard Kleinrock once. Might have some useful background info, might not. I really didn't know a damned thing about the history before reporting it. I recall him talking about Gore's role, and it even might have been a sidebar to the story, but I can't seem to find it.
Matt Welch|8.9.05 @ 5:06PM|#
Oh -- And that's not my lead in that story. The day I write "walking contradiction" in the opening graf of a profile, is the day I'll need to be forcibly retired.
|8.9.05 @ 5:07PM|#
Well, I was paying federal taxes long before Gore arrived. My money helped the development of the Net, so I deserve some props.
On topic, I wonder if Penny Nance has been watching GoreTV.
M1EK|8.9.05 @ 5:17PM|#
Dear Matt Welch,
Unless you can provide direct evidence that "The Internet" is a Homo Sapiens whose father was the aforementioned Kleinrock, our only possible conclusion is that you are a lying liar who lies like a rug. And you're probably a liberal, too.
Why do you hate America?
|8.9.05 @ 5:28PM|#
Oh man, that "Why do you hate America" line just keeps on getting funnier. It hasn't jumped the shark at all. Its constant use in all situations isn't derivative at all! Keep it up!
Sorry, I just got all of my wisdom teeth removed and I feel kind of like a prick. But still...
Jesse Walker|8.9.05 @ 5:41PM|#
Swede: As old as it's getting, you have to admit, it will never be as mind-bogglingly overplayed as the word "Moonbats."
Matt -- you poet, picker, prophet, pusher, pilgrim, and preacher: The real judgment day will come when you write a story that not only uses the phrase "walking contradiction" but is, Jayson Blair style, partly truth and partly fiction. Then you'll find yourself taking every wrong direction on the lonely road back home.
|8.9.05 @ 6:02PM|#
It seems like a lot of the media revolution Al Gore was talking about in 2001 has already happened on the internet, they are called weblogs. The problem is that when people started writing and reporting from the grass roots some or indeed most of them were (GASP!!) conservative and didn�t have much to say that was to Al Gore and the folks at Current TV�s liking.
|8.9.05 @ 6:16PM|#
Using my powers as the Internet's third cousin, I predict that M1EK and John will resume fighting here.
I then hope that joe and RC Dean will join in the fight and that gaius marius will insist that papyrus was better than the internet, regardless of how it was created.
|8.9.05 @ 6:43PM|#
Swede-
It'll probably continue to be funny as long as various pundits, talking heads, elected officials, and other denizens of shmuckdom continue to use it in earnest, preferably while banging on a desk or podium.
If they gave you some Tylenol 3 I hear that helps with one's tolerance of hackneyed phrases.
|8.9.05 @ 8:03PM|#
Swede, when I got my wisdom teeth removed, I felt like I was floating weightless in Happyhappyland afterwards.
Maybe you missed a step.
And if we stop asking people why they hate America, then the terrorists will have won.
John, liberal blogs now outnumber conservative blogs, according to the last story I saw.
|8.9.05 @ 8:50PM|#
There's too much gore on TV already, but never enough sects.
|8.9.05 @ 10:57PM|#
Joe,
Perhaps they do. I don't care enough to count. Whatever they are, it seems that blogs have pretty much done the "kids with cameras" media revolution that Al Gore was talking about when he started Current TV.
Kevin Carson|8.9.05 @ 11:06PM|#
I'd like to see a "more mainstream" version of Indymedia, with video podcasts. The market for it is certainly there, now that so many people have broadband. I can easily imagine a number of such news services, with competing ideologies to the left and right of mainstream media, each with the daily viewership of (say) Matt Drudge. It would be an interactive, online version of today's cable news channels. And the startup costs would be a hell of a lot lower.
Franklin Harris|8.10.05 @ 1:10AM|#
So, basically Al Gore's "distributed intellegence" is just like that SETI project that uses PCs networked via the internet to crunch data -- all just ants moving around pebbles in the anthill, with Gore himself as the queen.
|8.10.05 @ 7:28AM|#
Jesus, the coffee you people drink must be a hell of a lot stronger than what I get.
|8.10.05 @ 8:01AM|#
"In the context of the time, though -- the dot-com boom of the late 1990s -- it's fair to say that he was trying to take credit for it."
He was answering a question about his accomplishments. He was running for President. What's he supposed to say? "During my time in govenrment I really didn't do much of anything at all?" At worst he was doing nothing more than any resume writer who tries to embellish his job experience.
"John, liberal blogs now outnumber conservative blogs, according to the last story I saw."
And according to a post on DailyKos (which may be biased), most conservative blogs, unlike liberal ones, do not have sections for comments, i.e. they are not as participatory.
In any case, blogs and other internet sites attract those who are already interested and (in many cases) informed. The TV network in question, as bungled as it probably is, is meant to attract apathetic kids to become more engaged.
|8.10.05 @ 9:01AM|#
most conservative blogs, unlike liberal ones
Is there possibly anyone on the face of the earth who could find all the political blogs floating around, much less break them down by category?
I don't think even super-joe or GG/Hakayut has time for that.
|8.10.05 @ 9:22AM|#
John,
"it seems that blogs have pretty much done the "kids with cameras" media revolution that Al Gore was talking about when he started Current TV."
I suppose, to an extent. But broadcast video just has so much more immediacy, and is such a better tool for storytelling.
|8.10.05 @ 10:20AM|#
Douglas Fletcher -
I refer you to this:
"As I have always been prone to do, I spent much of the morning looking at the Blogads traffic rankings. Adding up the 200 blogs that are concerned with politics and either identify or have been identified with Democrats / liberals or Republicans / conservatives, I found 87 blogs that general fit into the "liberal" category and 113 blogs that fit into the conservative category. However, despite the greater number of conservative blogs, the liberal blogs totaled nearly ten million page views per week, while the conservative blogs managed just over six million. I have been tracking the comparative audiences of the two blogosphere off and on for the past nine months, and this is the largest lead for the liberal blogosphere that I have ever found. In September, the margin in favor of Democrats was 25%. In winter, it was 33%. In the spring, it was 50%. Now, it has risen to 65%. This is particularly amazing, since less than two years ago the conservative blogosphere was at least twice the size of the liberal blogosphere."
http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/6/12/17357/3049
|8.10.05 @ 10:29AM|#
Haven't seen CurrentTV, but from what I hear about it's broadcast style it reminds me of that Teletubbies show where a video is played on the felt stomach of a costumed character. Then it is played again. Arrggh! Truly awful for an adult to watch, but it kept my 2-year-old's attention for awhile. So, CurrentTV = adult version of Teletubbies?
ed|8.10.05 @ 11:07AM|#
I don't even know what "jump the shark" means but I'm damned tired of it.
keith|8.10.05 @ 11:19AM|#
it seems that blogs have pretty much done the "kids with cameras" media revolution that Al Gore was talking about when he started Current TV.
Cheap video cameras and webcams also already did that revolution, and it resulted in terraflops worth of homemade porn.
viva revolution!
|8.10.05 @ 12:07PM|#
Ed, "Jump the Shark" originally referred to a television series who's writers cannot come up with any new ideas. It's origin is an episode of Happy Days that aired in the mid 70's when there was a lot of Jaws related shark mania. In this episode, you guessed it, Fonzy jumped his motorcyle over a tank containing a shark.
Keith, the word used to describe the plethora of homemade porn is 'terabytes'. Teraflops are a measure of computational power, not hard drive space used to store images of people getting their freak on.
|8.10.05 @ 12:08PM|#
Oh, and I agree Keith, Viva La Revolution!!
|8.10.05 @ 12:58PM|#
I'm surprised no one here has yet brought up the Public Access analogy. Actually, PA is more 'empowering', since you don't have a bunch of programming dolts deciding whether your little homemade video is worthy of inclusion.
In any event, going after the young'uns through the medium of TV is probably a quaint notion anyway--isn't TV viewership down among teens and young adults?
If Gore and this Neuman fellow were anywhere near the cutting edge, they'd be figuring out how to get their POV across in the videogame medium. Now that most players are Internet-ready, imagine some kind of interactive game that supposedly makes you think. Of course, I'd rather find a way of incorporating a whining, blubbery U.S. Senator character into Grand Theft Auto, but that's just me...
keith|8.10.05 @ 1:30PM|#
Keith, the word used to describe the plethora of homemade porn is 'terabytes'.
Correction noted. Once computing advanced past my Commodore 64, I started faking it anyway.
That said -- give a kid a camera, and there's still a good chance you're going to get amateur fight club videos or porn, which would probably still be more culturally relevant and enlightening than listening to Gore and others rap with the young folks. Don't kids have Noggin' anyway? Or are the Degrassi marathons not hauling in the GTA crowd the way they used to?
keith|8.10.05 @ 1:32PM|#
And on an unrelated note, that bald muscular guy doing his pelvic thrusts right on top of Andrew Napolitano's head is just so...
|8.10.05 @ 2:37PM|#
JumpTheShark.com
|8.11.05 @ 10:21AM|#
As I have always been prone to do, I spent much of the morning looking at the Blogads traffic rankings. Adding up the 200 blogs...
200 blogs doesn't exactly sound complete, there must be thousands and thousands of the damn things out there.
|8.11.05 @ 10:22AM|#
Or blessed things, however you want to look at it.