News From Across The Pond

From today's BBC an interesting article on comments made by Al Gore in Scotland. He's attending a TV Festival in Edinburgh. I've been to Edinburgh and it is a beautiful city. And August is a wonderful time to be there.
I included this article because I have been getting a lot of emails from friends and others who ask if Al Gore is really going to run for President? Most people wish he would run, and others suggest he isn't interested in the job. I think Al Gore is interested but he's going to run on his terms. That's my two cents. Read the article below, but here's the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5291298.stm

US politics 'obsessed' with ads

By Kevin Young Entertainment reporter, BBC News

Finding cash to fund TV commercials is "the only thing that matters in American politics now", former US Vice-President Al Gore has said.

"The person who has the most money to run the most ads usually wins," he told the Edinburgh TV Festival.

It was "astonishing" that the average American devoted nearly five hours a day to TV viewing, he added.

And Mr Gore asserted the internet was making TV more accessible and letting people join a "multi-way conversation".

He called this an important move because people could find and distribute information, and then watch as it was judged by others in terms of quality.

*****

On the subject of the expenditure of political parties, Mr Gore, a Democrat, said: "Two days ago, I was at an event helping to raise money for a candidate of my political party, running for governor in one of our most populous states.

"I asked the question of him: 'What percentage of your campaign budget, between now and election day in November, will be spent on television commercials?'

"The answer was 80%," he told an audience of several hundred media industry figures on the final day of the festival.

*****

And he claimed the power of modern advertising had led to the ability to create demand for products "artificially".

"Now you sometimes see, in extreme cases, advertising created before the product, and then the product is based on what looks as if it's going to succeed.

"That same phenomenon has now happened to democracy," he said, suggesting that too often, political parties made decisions based on reactions to their advertising campaigns.