Sarah Palin Joins Al Gore In Not Realizing That Everyone's A Reporter These Days

from the something-in-the-veep-sauce? dept

Last year, we wrote how odd it was that former VP Al Gore banned reporters from a speech he gave, where all audio-video equipment was also banned. These days, such "no reporters allowed" speeches make no sense -- because anyone can be a reporter. Yet, it seems that there's something in the veep sauce (or veep wannabe sauce) that leads to these sorts of positions, as former VP candidate, Sarah Palin, is trying to do the same thing, barring "reporters" along with any kind of recording devices from a talk that she is giving. You can understand, perhaps, why politicians like to do this, but it seems both out of touch and completely pointless. Every single person in that room can be a reporter in one way or another -- and it doesn't take a recording device, but a pencil and some paper (or a decent memory). Trying to block out the "official" press is just a waste of time.

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Current Blames Economy For No IPO... But, Lack Of Profitability May Have Been A Bigger Issue

from the let's-get-real dept

Last year, when Al Gore's Current Media filed to go public, we couldn't figure out how it could possibly have a successful IPO, unless it came from the strength of Al Gore's name alone. The company wasn't profitable, wasn't receiving very much buzz, didn't seem to do anything all that unique, and its big plans to be a cable channel "for the internet age" hadn't been very successful (the internet stuff was a failure, almost all revenue came from the pure cable side). So, now that the IPO has been canceled, the company is conveniently blaming the economy, but you have to think that the company's actual prospects had even more to do with it than anything else. If the company had actually been doing well, I'd imagine it would actually be a good time to go out, as those with money actually are looking for decent buys.

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What's Al Gore Got To Hide From The Mobile Industry Trade Press?

from the inquiring-minds dept

The US mobile industry is gearing up for its big yearly trade show in Las Vegas in a few weeks, and Al Gore will be delivering one of the keynote addresses. Nothing too unusual there -- except that Gore wanted the press banned from attending his speech, as he's tried to do before. Call us crazy, but usually when you're speaking to advance a cause (as we thought Gore was doing with his environmental activism), press coverage is a good thing. Unless, of course, perhaps your attempts to ban press coverage are really just attempts to try and protect the big speaking fees you collect. Perhaps, though, all the attention in the mobile-industry trade press has caused an about-face. The page on the CTIA web site about keynote addresses used to contain the admonition that "VP Gore's keynote address is closed to the press", as the Google Cache version shows. But that line's been dropped from the currently live version. Maybe Gore and his people figuring out that an audience at a cell-phone trade show will probably be full of people with, you know, cell phones, who will send out Twitter messages and moblog posts and all kinds of other info from the speech? Even if the press is banned, the press will be there, and details of his speech will get out. Somehow it seems the more likely reason is the CTIA and Gore just don't want to look like censors.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Why Is Al Gore Supporting A .Eco Top-Level Domain

from the can-we-get-serious? dept

Considering he invented the thing, it's weird that Al Gore is supporting an initiative that would only add confusion and expense to the Internet. Gore and his Alliance for Climate Protection are publicly endorsing a new effort to create .eco, a new top-level domain for individuals and corporations to "signal their interest in joining a global ecological movement that promotes nonpartisan change." Profits from the initiative, for which Dot Eco LLC is currently lobbying ICANN, at their meeting in Mexico, would help fund environmental research.

While the goal is laudatory, the method is just silly. Instead of digital posturing, there are a host of other established, effective organizations and ways that companies and individuals can help protect the environment. A .eco TLD is not necessary to demonstrate support for the environment, it just adds another cost for companies and confuses users.

Kevin Donovan is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Kevin Donovan and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Shouldn't Al Gore Know That Everyone Is A Journalist These Days?

from the ban-everyone! dept

Al Gore, who, last we checked had founded a "citizen journalism"-based TV channel and internet site, has apparently told the RSA conference that one of the terms of his keynote speech at the event is that no press are allowed (and no photographs or audio or video recording either). That may have made sense years ago, but in this day and age, where everyone is a "reporter" and everyone has an outlet, it seems rather ridiculous to even think that you can ban "press," let alone make it a clause in a speaking agreement. Last year, the same event drew 17,000 people. You have to figure that a decent number of them have blogs, social networking pages, Twitter accounts and whatnot -- and a very high percentage probably have mobile phones with cameras on them as well (and, of course, it doesn't hurt that CNET appears to be offering to give people a free fleece for taping the event). Sorry, Mr. Vice President, even if you ban them, the press will be attending your talk.

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Al Gore Throws Hat Into The IPO Ring...

from the not-quite-what-some-were-expecting dept

While there's still some speculation about an Al Gore run for the presidency, it appears he's got bigger fish to fry, such as an IPO for his cable TV station Current Media. Honestly, it looks like a tough sell as an IPO. It's not profitable. There are some serious questions about how viable a business it can be, and its "unique" angles, such as embracing the internet, haven't been all that successful (almost all of its revenue still comes from the TV side). If it succeeds as an IPO, it may be entirely on the strength of Gore's name, which seems like the opposite of what the company should want at this point.

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