i like Al Gore ... i like "the new Al Gore" even more ... you kind of get the feeling with Gore that he finally feels like the choke collar of political consultants has been removed from around his neck ...
while i've been somewhat disappointed with Gore's vague comments about withdrawal from Iraq, i find a sort of refreshing honesty and integrity when i listen to him ... i don't feel that way about too many others ...
Gore broadened his well known environmental message on Sunday when he railed against the evils of an overly centralized media ... like many other elements of increasingly consolidated power, shrinking diversity in our MSM is eroding our democracy ... and now, there are dark clouds appearing on the horizon that the internet may be the next target of those who want to keep the public in the dark and isolated from each other ...
Gore's focus on fundamental democracy is an issue that all Democrats would be wise to address ...
source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060828/ap_on_re_eu/britain_goreFormer Vice President Al Gore said Sunday ever-tighter political and economic control of the media is a major threat to democracy. <skip>
"Democracy is under attack," Gore told an audience at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. "Democracy as a system for self-governance is facing more serious challenges now than it has faced for a long time.
"Democracy is a conversation, and the most important role of the media is to facilitate that conversation of democracy. Now the conversation is more controlled, it is more centralized."
He said that in many countries, media control was being consolidated in the hands of a few businesspeople or politicians. <skip>
In the United States "the only thing that matters in American politics now is having enough money to put 30-second commercials on the air often enough to convince the voters to elect you or re-elect you," he said. "The person who has the most money to run the most ads usually wins." <skip>