Gore TV!!

Reuters reports that Al Gore has found a day job — trying to become the next Rupert Murdoch:

Former Vice President Al Gore plans to build a youth-oriented cable television network he hopes will become an independent voice in a media industry dominated by large conglomerates, he said on Tuesday. Gore led an investor group that bought Newsworld International from Vivendi Universal for an undisclosed sum. He plans to relaunch the yet-unnamed channel to focus on public affairs and entertainment for 18-to-34-year-olds and it will not have a political affiliation. Speculation has swirled that Gore would launch a network to counter Fox News Channel, which unseated CNN as the No. 1 U.S. cable news channel with a formula of combining hard news coverage with brash talk shows that some have criticized as conservative. “This is not going to be a liberal network, or a Democratic network in any way, shape, or form,” the former vice president said. Rather, he said, the reason for buying the network was to create an independent source of information. “The trend toward consolidation and conglomerate ownership, while understandable due to business dynamics, does present some problems for the American people,” Gore said. “Having an independent voice is a very important value to safeguard.” Gore will serve as chairman of the new network and told Reuters he would be spending most of his time on the project. “I will be extremely active in this venture and I will not hesitate to state a point of view on the issues that affect the industry,” Gore said…. Gore and [business partner Joel] Hyatt gave little information on what would replace the current programing. “It’s going to be programing young people care about,” Hyatt said. “The documentary is a format we’ll use. We’re going to use the comedic format. We’re going to be irreverent. We’re going to be bold.”

Readers are invited to submit programming ideas here — beyond the obviously brilliant suggestion of hiring lots of bloggers. UPDATE: For those hard at work trying to come up with program ideas, this Zap2it story quotes Gore more extensively on the desired content:

“We are launching an exciting television network for young men and women who want to know more about their world and who enjoy real-life stories created with, by and for their own generation,” says Gore, who will serve as chairman of INdTV. “These stories will be in a voice that young people recognize and from a point of view they identify as their own.”

Well, that clears things right up. ANOTHER UPDATE: So far, my faves are the reality TV suggestion “Alpha Male Makeover” and the game show called “The Lock Box”.