Is hot air considered a component of the global warming problem?
Al Gore, who recently pocketed a reported $100 million from selling his struggling Current TV network to Arab news channel Al-Jazeera, failed to defend himself against charges of “hypocrisy” on yesterday’s “Today” show.
Gore was on the show to promote a new book, “The Future: Six Drivers of Social Change.”
But Matt Lauer immediately went after Gore about a section of his book in which Gore criticizes “virtually every news and political commentary program on television” for being “sponsored in part by oil, coal and gas companies . . . with messages designed to soothe and reassure the audience that everything is fine, the global environment is not threatened.”
“Critics jumped: ‘Here’s the guy who just sold Current TV to Al- Jazeera, which gets an undetermined amount of funds from Qatar, which gets its money from oil reserves,’ ” Lauer said. “Isn’t there a contradiction in that?”
“I certainly understand the criticism,” Gore replied . “I disagree with it, because I think Al-Jazeera has obviously long-established itself as a really distinguished and effective newsgathering organization.
“And, by the way, its climate coverage has been far more extensive and of higher quality than any of the [US] networks.”