Published 2013.01.07 in CommPRO.biz

An Open Mind?

In a long overdue move Al Gore and his partner Joel Hyatt cashed out Current, a non-starter cable channel for lefties (a role already more than adequately filled by MSNBC). They have been trying to unload this turkey for years. Qatar owned Al Jazeera, the Middle East news network paid an astonishing five hundred million for Current. The network never had more than a handful of viewers; however, it does have distribution deals with most all of the sources where folks pick up cable content. Al Jazeera has worked to gain a spot on cable for its English broadcasts, so we can assume that’s what they ponied up a half-billion dollars for, Current’s cable slots.

The ink was barely dry on this deal when Time Warner, the number two cable company in the US, announced they were dumping Current. They gave no reason and say they have an “open mind” on returning the channel to Al Jazeera, a claim that is pretty hard to swallow. A case of Islamophobia seems a much more likely reason. Violent opposition to Al Jazeera by the Bush administration spooked the cable operators and reinforced their unwarranted bias against anything with the slightest connection to Islam. If bias concerns Time Warner, they obviously have not been watching Current or any number of other channels in their line-up.

Time Warner used a clause in the Current agreement that allowed them to dump the network if it was sold. Some have suggested that the cable giant took the “out” as a negotiating tactic to cut a better deal. Given the logistics involved –you don’t just flip a switch to take a channel down– that seems unlikely. Besides, a threat of a cut-off is a much more effective negotiating tool. Shame on Time Warner; there is no more reason to block Al Jazeera than BBC America. With the thousands of channels Time Warner offers subscribers, there is surely room to retain the space Current occupies. It’s not like anyone is going to be forced to watch Al Jazeera, it just should be available.

Al Jazeera’s plan to convert Current to Al Jazeera America sounds interesting to any open-minded individual or organization, as Time Warner claims to be. The plan calls for as many as ten bureaus in the country, up from the five they now have, and as many as 300 staffers. Just the potential for them to offer coverage of more than major happenings in America to the people of the Middle East is more than enough reason to encourage their growth.

While the First Amendment applies only to government interference with speech and the press, the spirit of that guardian of the people’s right to know should lead Time Warner to do the right thing, the ethical thing. Knock off this nonsense and offer Al Jazeera to your customers.

That Greasy Sleazy Feeling

 

As we pull out of the gas station these days, in addition to the empty spot in our wallets there’s a scent of sleaze in the air. It’s not our friendly gas station dude, he’s just trying to get by like a lot of us; it’s more complicated than that. The more we drill down, we discover that it has little to do with the price of oil. But isn’t oil scarce, aren’t we importing more than ever before? No, actually we are producing about 80% of our needs. All that new drilling that fired up over the last few years combined with reductions in usage, has narrowed that gap. Don’t say anything out loud, but America is even exporting oil. What’s the problem then?

There are many factors from the seasonal bump we see this time every year, to the capacity of our refineries, to unrest in the Middle East. While the latter does not seem to be a real factor given how little we need from those folks, there is no doubt that it is a factor. Not in the way you might think, however. No less an authority than Goldman Sachs has found a culprit that adds at least $.56 to the price of every gallon of gasoline. It’s the casino called Wall Street.

The commodities market was designed to stabilize the price of grain, cattle, pork and other things including oil. The idea is to assure the producer’s pricing when the fruits of their labor hits the market. But of course it turns out that you don’t have to be a buyer or seller of these commodities to get into the game. You just have to have the bucks and the free pass that the Congress gave Wall Street, immunity from gambling laws. Add something like instability in the Middle East and give their roulette wheel a spin; we always lose.

Now the commodities market is flooded with all kinds of financial instruments, things like “swaps,” the fun stuff that helped toss the world economy into the dumpster. Speculating on commodities has always been around but until recently the end users and producers controlled over two-thirds of the contracts. Today that number has flipped and two-thirds are in the hands of speculators. Not the players in the oil market that have traditionally dominated this game. Today a frighteningly small number of Wall Street types hold the price of oil in their hands; playing with what we pay at the pump.

You can figure that seven to eight bucks is pocketed by the Wall Street types every time you fill up, ten bucks or more if you drive a bigger vehicle. The average price for a gallon would be a little over three bucks without Wall Street’s “take.” Given the rare peek we got into the wonderful world of Wall Street when one of its own, Greg Smith, laid out his reasons for leaving Goldman Sachs in an OP-ED, you can imagine the nicknames the Wall Street types pin on us. While most businesses, in fact most folks are trying to do the right thing, pond scum like Goldman and their ilk have no concept of the ethical life.