Yesterday morning, the still shell shocked staff at Current TV was called to an all hands staff meeting at its San Francisco headquarters, which was teleconferenced to their offices in LA and NYC, to meet their new bosses. That would be two of Al Jazeera’s top guys: Ehab Al Shihabi, executive director of international operations, and Muftah AlSuwaidan, general manager of the London bureau. “Of course Al didn’t show up,” said one high placed Current staffer. “He has no credibility.“He’s supposed to be the face of clean energy and just sold [the channel] to very big oil, the emir of Qatar! Current never even took big oil advertising—and Al Gore, that bulls***ter sells to the emir?” The mostly left-leaning group—some still in denial —weren’t buying what Al Jazeera was selling.
Current TV staffers get the Al Gore mission statement a little too late.