Democracy 'At Risk' From Cable, Satellite

"It is television delivered over cable and satellite that will continue for the remainder of this decade and probably the next to be the dominant medium of communication in America's democracy. And so long as that is the case, I truly believe that America's democracy is at grave risk." That dire warning about the dangers of cable news and information came from Al Gore, former Vice President and now co-founder of cable news and information network, Current TV. But Gore was drawing a distinction between the established nets "monopolized" by a few big companies, and his own cable/Internet hybrid. "There is virtually no exchange of ideas at all in television's domain," he said in a speech in New York Thursday. "My partner Joel Hyatt and I are trying to change that - at least where Current TV is concerned. Perhaps not coincidentally, we are the only independently owned news and information network in all of American television." He said the same corporate "feudalists" who have gained control of TV are threatening to do the same with the Web. "We must be prepared to fight for it because some of the same forces of corporate consolidation and control that have distorted the television marketplace have an interest in controlling the Internet marketplace as well," he told his audience.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6265394?display=Breaking+News...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

* The Threat to American Democracy (text of Gore's speech)
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/06/D8D2IU703.html

* Al Gore's Code Red
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/26494/