Gore wants TV to welcome more users Internet-style

GORE WANTS TV TO WELCOME MORE USERS INTERNET-STYLE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jeffrey Goldfarb]
Although the Internet is a democratizing force, television is still the most influential form of media and citizens ought to have more control over its programming, former Vice President Al Gore said on Sunday. Gore, long an advocate of the information superhighway and now the owner of a U.S.-based current affairs TV channel that shows user-generated programs, also said the Internet is not yet technologically capable of replicating television's power. "Most of what's happening in the encounter between television and the Internet has been the Internet cannibalizing television," Gore told an annual gathering of British TV executives in Scotland. "What is needed is to reverse the flow and find ways to use the Internet to give individuals access to the public forum, which is television," he said. Gore framed his argument around the need for citizens to rejoin the democratic process and to be given the ability to challenge inaccurate remarks made by politicians, especially in the TV ads that dominate election campaigns.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-08-28T062110Z_01_L27801030_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-GORE-TV.xml&archived...