V / R ?

Remember the news about Al Gore starting his own television network called current?

I was flipping through the cable channels tonight, and I happened to notice that I have current. So I figured I'd check it out.

It's actually kinda cute and fun. It's like a much smarter version of the crap that they put on in college coffee shops that have TV's hovering overhead. (you know -- the stuff that comes between trendy music videos)

They have no shows on current. They just have these documentary-style "pods" that are no longer than 7 minutes. (and there's a little progress bar on the bottom of each so you know how much is left) They cover a wide range of subjects. It feels sorta NPR-like in that respect because they bring news from all over the world covering even individual stories of people who you probably haven't heard of before. However, they focus their material on 20-somethings. (all of their "anchors" are 20-somethings) Supposedly they use viewer feedback to determine new content, but I don't see how yet.

They're independently owned... That is, they're not owned by the four or five companies who own all the rest of the media.

And their website is kinda fun. It basically gives you a line up of the pod that's on now, the pods that were just on, and the pods that are coming up.

Anyway, I know it's pretty silly, but it's kinda fun to see 20-somethings doing journalism and being excited about it. It's inspirational... a bit... I dunno.

Maybe I'm just feeling sappy. Maybe I'm just feeling like Al Gore should be in the Whitehouse right now. Either way, I kinda like current. You should check it out.