Watch Live: Second House Hearing on IRS Scandal

The 7 Key Moments From Wednesday’s IRS Hearing

Media

Here Are All the Surprisingly Tough Questions Matt Lauer Fired at Al Gore During Contentious Interview on Al Jazeera ‘Hypocrisy’

Jan. 29, 2013 9:00am Jonathon M. Seidl

Every once in awhile, network television can still produce some hard-hitting interviews. Case-in-point: Matt Lauer confronted Al Gore on his “hypocrisy” surrounding the sale of his former network Current TV to Al Jazeera, which is in part owned by the oil-rich country of Qatar.

Skeptical? Just read some of Lauer’s tough questions:

• Was that [buying Current] always just an investment to you? Maybe I was naive, I thought it was something you had an ideological interest in in, so why did it become just an investment at the end?

• And yet even as you sold to Al Jazeera, you in the book blast other television news programs saying this [he then read this quote from Gore's new book]:

• And the critics jumped. ‘Here’s the guy who just sold Current TV to Al Jazeera, which gets an undetermined amount of funding from the country of Qatar, which gets its money from oil reserves.’ Isn’t there a contradiction in that?

• But if they get funding from a country that bases its wealth on fossil fuels, and fossil fuels are the enemy you target in climate change, isn’t there a bit of hypocrisy in that?

How did Gore respond? He squirmed a bit and said things such as:

• “As an independent network, the only independent news and information network, we found it difficult to compete in an age of conglomerates. And I’m very pleased Al Jazeera has established itself as a really respected news gathering network.”

• “I certainly understand that criticism. I disagree with it. I think Al Jazeera has, obviously, long since established itself as a really distinguished and effective news gathering organization. And by the way, its climate coverage has been far more extensive and high-quality.”

• “Well, I get the criticism. I just disagree with it, because this network has established itself. It’s objective, it’s won major awards in countries around the world and its climate coverage, as I said a moment ago, has been outstanding and extensive.”

Watch the hard-hitting interview below:

This story has been updated.

–

• ‘Al Gore Is Nothing but a Bulls***ter’: Current TV Staffers Reportedly Irate Over Network’s Sale to ‘Big Oil’
• Al Gore’s Current TV Rebuffs Advances by TheBlaze, Agrees to Sell Channel to Al Jazeera

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (153)

NoExpectations
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 3:15am
There is no hypocrisy b/c there are no expectations of the left. Nothing left to say!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
beardedjesse
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 3:12pm
Is clearly contradicting yourself & being a total hypocrite wrong for a Liberal like Al Gore? Of course its not because most of them believe they shouldn’t be held to the same moral laws, standards & obligations as the rest of the world. At the same time, they hold other’s feet to hot coals on issues every single chance they get. If someone tries to do the same to them, they use their typical “go-to” arguments of racism, sexism, world pollution, intollerance & other blah blah blah things they spout off when cornered…

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
2darroyo
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 11:31am
Ohhhhhhh Al !

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
ldonnell
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 9:05am
fat albert ,dont you wish that he had won the 2000 election.just think how much he could have got for the whole country!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
noslave
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:34am
the moderators must love matt lauer??they wont print this??i’ve noticed that liberal interviewers (60 minutes,msnbc,etc.?)must study ventriliquism as a job requirement??when interviewing their godly icons??(obama,hillary,gore,etc) how else can they conduct soft-ball lovefest interviews??with their LIPSfirmly attached to their idols azzes??

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
fedup ohio
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:33am
I watched the whole interview. I thought Matt did a good job asking questions, the problem was Matt did not follow through with the questioning. He let Al off by accepting his lame answers. Considering it was the Today Show, that was a hard hitting interview. Gyro’s post sums it up, about the only answer Al gave was ” I understand the criticism, but I disagree with it.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
lonwarner2
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:15am
I’m surprised Gore didn’t use the same answer Hillary did! “What difference does it make”

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
oxycontinxx
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:03am
once again……………gore demonstrates what a total dumbmass he really is.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- oxycontinxx
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 8:04am
  as an addon…………remember this is the guy that said on tv the temperature at earth’s center is ONE MILLION degrees.
  
  hmmmmmmm………….seems like to me we d all be crispy critters if that was true.
  
  Report this comment
gary kilmer
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 7:08am
? crap

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
bobbiejean
Posted on January 30, 2013 at 2:47am
And this is what hard-hitting journalism looks like? Yawn.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
rich66
Posted on January 29, 2013 at 11:12pm
Gee, I thought Matt was gonna wet kiss him.

Hacked, that’s a computer term, NO REALLY? I had no idea.
What a dufus!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
linb
Posted on January 29, 2013 at 10:42pm
At the end of the day, regardless of what was said, Al Gore is the most disgusting pig outside of any farm. He is a low-life generate that would sell his soul for the right price – and probably has! Just look at his face! He has the look of a lying, hypocrite. Slimy, sleezy, disgusting are the words that come to mind for him. His wife had the right idea when she kicked him out. Slimeball. Inconvenient Truth my foot – more like the biggest inconvenient lie of all time. If his lips are moving, he’s lying. He would say the sky is falling if he could make a buck on it!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
strawberry411a
Posted on January 29, 2013 at 10:22pm
Don’t blame Matt. It was an accident.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
child of the King
Posted on January 29, 2013 at 9:20pm
@anonymoust.irrelevant Al gore will never be brought up on chareges of defrauding people in america or the worldon this climate change/global warming garbage.the liberals won’t allow it or obama will get his pupets in the justice department to cover it up or give him a pardon.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
pntdblack
Posted on January 29, 2013 at 8:04pm
Absolute “nut job” Oh! rich “nut job”

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Rachel C
Posted on January 29, 2013 at 6:14pm
If THAT interview was considered “contentious”, then the definition of contentious must have changed dramatically without my knowing about it.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply

It appears that you have Javascript Disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser preferences for a better user experience on TheBlaze. You can not comment without Javascript enabled.