BTW

How Convenient, Mr. Gore

By Ronald Grover

Al Gore’s Current TV, a tiny cable channel that runs viewers’ videos, is trying to raise $100 million by going public—in decidedly nondemocratic style, critics say. The prospectus filed Jan. 28 for channel parent Current Media gives Gore and co-founder Joel Hyatt, a former Democratic Party finance chair, Class B super shares, each worth 10 common share votes. “That’s hardly democratic—with a large D or a small d,” says University of Delaware corporate governance expert Charles Elson. Unions and shareholder activists have targeted super-voting shares. (Interestingly, Current Media board member Ronald Burkle, a Los Angeles fund manager whose clients include union pension funds, didn’t sign the IPO filing.) Current TV can’t comment because of the pre-IPO quiet period. But a source familiar with the board’s thinking says it gave Gore and Hyatt the super shares to ensure a focus on consumer content. Gore did not return calls.