By ROBERT LAURIE
October 26th, 2012
As usual, left-wing media outlets only make money when they're being liquidated
Founded in 2005 by Al Gore, Current TV quickly made a name for itself as a go-to source for environmental incoherence, Democrat lunacy, and far-left diatribes. If providing an outlet for liberal kooks was the goal, it succeeded admirably. However, if it was trying to attract viewers, well, it's had some difficulty. Now, it's up for sale.
CEO Joel Hyatt recently told the New York Post that “Current has been approached many times by media companies interested in acquiring our company. This year alone, we have had three inquiries. As a consequence, we thought it might be useful to engage expertise to help us evaluate our strategic options.”
That's big-time TV exec speak that roughly translates as "We're getting ready to dump this turkey."
The network began its life by focusing on young, high school and college age, liberals. Predictably, its early crusade against global warming failed to attract eyeballs, so it began to reinvent itself as a standard, left-wing, talking head channel - packed with a host of zany pundits that even MSNBC had rejected.
Chief among these was Keith Olbermann who, after being fired from MSNBC due to his horrible personality, took his show "Countdown" to Current in 2011. There, he experienced the same kind of ego-driven controversies that have plagued him at every network in his career. The acquisition of Countdown was supposed to save the struggling net but, a few months after he started, Olbermann started to implode. He began insulting his bosses, famously referring to the station as "amateur hour," and was fired seven months ago.
Since then, Current has played host to a wide range of progressive nut jobs, with its most notable shows including such outstanding fare as “Joy Behar: Say Anything!,” “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer,” and of course, "The War Room with Jennifer Granholm."
All of these programs boast ratings which are regularly dwarfed by those earned by Dukes of Hazzard reruns.
Current reaches approximately 60 million homes, earning 12 cents per cable subscriber or a little more than $80 million a year. It generates a measly $16 million a year in advertising revenue.
