Al Gore is being sued by a man who claims that it was his idea to sell Current TV to Al Jazeera and repackage it as “Al Jazeera America.” The Hollywood Reporter obtained a copy of the suit, and has the story:
Current TV’s $500 million sale to Al Jazeera has prompted a lawsuit that claims co-founder Al Gore originally was opposed to the deal but had a “change of heart” on selling his cable network to oil-rich Qataris.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court by John Terenzio, who presents himself as a highly regarded media consultant, executive and TV producer who conceived the idea for the distribution of an American version of Al Jazeera.
Now, Terenzio claims that he has been cut out of the lucrative deal.
Terenzio alleges that he approached Richard Blum, a board member of Current TV with a major stake in the company (who is also the husband of Democratic California senator Dianne Feinstein), with his proposal and presented a “detailed PowerPoint presentation” that included a strategy for “making the sale of the liberal media outlet to Al Jazeera palatable to U.S. lawmakers, pro-Israel factions, cable and operators and, most importantly, the American public.” According to Terenzio, it was mutually understood that he would be compensated if Current went ahead with the idea.
The suit says that Blum was enthusiastic about the proposal but feared that Gore would find it “politically unappealing.” It alleges that “Gore was adamant in his rejection of the proposal to sell his liberal, environmentally friendly network to the oil rich Qataris who owned Al Jazeera. Apparently, Gore had a change of heart.”
When Gore was challenged by various figures in the mainstream media for his hypocrisy in profiting from petrodollars, his standard response was, “Well, I get the criticism.” If Terenzio’s account is accurate, it seems Gore sincerely did understand where his critics were coming from.