Matt Lauer Grills Al Gore Over ‘Hypocrisy’ In Selling Current TV To Oil-Funded Al Jazeera

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Mediaite.com:

This morning on the Today Show, NBC’s Matt Lauer grilled former Vice President Al Gore over the “contradictions” in his sale of Current TV to the largely oil-funded Al Jazeera network.

“Was [buying Current] always just an investment to you?” Lauer asked after reading off the amount of money Gore made from his stake in the network. “Maybe I was naive, I thought it was something you had an ideological interest in, so why did it become just an investment at the end?”

“No, it didn’t,” Gore responded. “As an independent network — the only independent news and information network — we found it difficult to compete in this age of conglomerates and i’m pleased that Al Jazeera has established itself as a respected news-gathering network.”

Lauer then confronted the former VP with his own seemingly contradictory remarks. “Even as you sold to Al Jazeera, you in the book blast other television news programs saying this,” reading Gore’s old comments:

“Virtually every news and political commentary program on television is sponsored in part by oil, coal and gas companies — not just during campaign seasons, but all the time, year in and year out — with messages designed to soothe and reassure the audience that everything is fine, the global environment is not threatened.”

“And the critics jumped. They said, ‘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,’” Lauer said.

“Isn’t there a contradiction in that?” he asked.

“I certainly understand that criticism,” replied Gore. “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.”

“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?” pressed Lauer.

Gore doubled down, insisting that despite its oil-rich funding, Al Jazeera has maintained a reputation of independence: “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.

RELATED: Gore fails to defend Current TV-Al Jazeera sale

Bill O’Reilly And Matt Lauer Battle Over Media Coverage Of Whitney Houston’s Drug Addiction

Mediaite.com:

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly was a guest on Thursday morning’s TODAY show, and got into a relatively heated discussion with host Matt Lauer when the topic of Whitney Houston‘s death came up.


Lauer brought up O’Reilly’s earlier comments, when he said that Houston had wanted to kill herself, because of her constant abuse of drugs.


“I don’t believe that anyone is a slave to addiction,” O’Reilly said, explaining that while addiction is a disease, people also have free will. “You don’t have free will when you have lung cancer. You do have free will when you’re a crack addict.”


O’Reilly said the media looked the other way while Houston was addicted to drugs “for two decades.” When Lauer said that there were plenty of stories about Houston’s addiction, O’Reilly countered that they were just sensationalized accounts.


“You know what we in the media do, Lauer?” O’Reilly asked. “We wink wink it, we Snoop Dogg it. We Willie Nelson it. Hey, oh yeah, they’re stoned. That’s fine. And what message does that send? It’s okay!”


Lauer said that it was apples and oranges, saying that the media did highlight Houston’s problems.


“They exploited it!” O’Reilly exclaimed. “Name me one media commentator outside of myself who said, ‘Hey Whitney, you better knock it off or you’re going to be in the ground. Give me one!”


The two went back and forth on the coverage of Houston’s addiction before Lauer suggested, “Let’s move on a little, because you and I could do this for hours,”


“Because I’d always be right,” O’Reilly said.


“And I know you’d always think you’re right,” Lauer added.

RELATED: Christie defends decision to lower flags for Whitney Houston

Bill O'Reilly to Matt Lauer: Have A 'Telethon on the Today Show' If You Want Funding for 'Climate Control'

It's why Bill O'Reilly is consistently No. 1:

During his Talking Points Memo at the top of Wednesday's O'Reilly Factor on Fox News, host Bill O'Reilly called out NBC Today co-host Matt Lauer for denouncing Republican efforts to cut spending on things like "climate control": "Are you kidding me, Lauer? Funding for climate control? Nobody can control the climate but God. So give a little extra at mass or services."


As NewsBusters reported, on Wednesday's Today, Lauer lamented: "...some of the things the Tea Party and others on the far right are asking for – no funding for Planned Parenthood, no funding for climate control, public broadcasting." In response, O'Reilly remarked: "Funding for Planned Parenthood and public broadcasting when the debt stands at 14 trillion? Have a telethon on the Today show for those concerns. Raise the money privately. This is nuts. The country's nearly bankrupt. China holds more than a trillion dollars of our debt and you guys want climate control funding? I feel a cold front coming on."

Matt Lauer Swats Away Dina Lohan's Excuses For Troubled Daughter Lindsay

Another irony: for all the sh-t dad Michael Lohan gets from Dina and Lindsay (both of whom refuse to talk to him) its under Dina's care that Lindsay Lohan's life and career have gone downhill, can we say "enablers"?

John McCain On Allegations Of His Campaign's Lax Vetting Of Sarah Palin

Lauer will scheme for the Left at times, but in light of all that's come out (esp. from Palin herself) about McCain's presidential campaign, I think in this case it's fair to ask about Palin's vetting process. Might be better for McCain to just admit that sure he hardly knew Palin before he picked her for his VP nominee, but knowing full well how much he was struggling with his party's far-Right base, his advisers felt his best shot at defeating The One was to take a shot and gamble on a then-popular (and pretty) Governor from Alaska who'd galvanize the GOP's base and close the gap behind Barry. Picking Palin worked for the former, but not enough for the latter, but hey it was worth a shot.

Lou Dobbs on CNN: We're Moving In Separate Directions

In a TODAY exclusive, Lou Dobbs, who last week unexpectedly announced his resignation from his longtime post at CNN, talks to TODAY's Matt Lauer about his decision to leave the network and his plans for the future.

Matt Lauer Pwnes Michelle Malkin

Do the yahoos on the Far-Right like Michelle Malkin know that Barack Obama is half-white? That white people from across the ideological aisle (including Republicans) voted for Barry last year to be their President? That because he made one mistake, shooting off his mouth in the Henry Louis Gates Jr. incident, doesn't make him a "racial opportunity" or a "racist". Any wonder the fringe society on the Far Right is just as hard to take seriously as their peers on the Left?

Matt Lauer Defends Pervert David Letterman On Sarah Palin Rape Jokes

So it's ok for liberals to "connect the dots" with conservative pundits and "domestic terrorism," but not ok for Palin to connect misogynist rape jokes with young women's self-esteem. Palin was being kind calling Lauer "extremely naive".

Newsbusters has more:

NBC host Matt Lauer interviewed Sarah Palin on June 12, and defended comedian David Letterman and his joke about the statutory rape of Palin’s daughter by baseball player Alex Rodriguez.

When Palin began to condemn the joke as wildly inappropriate and offensive, Lauer defended Letterman: “Since David Letterman’s not here, let me just say that he did not mention Willow by name, and he then went on to say he was not referring to your 14-year-old daughter,” as though to Lauer the excuse diminished the vile nature of Letterman’s joke.

At the end of the segment, Lauer did admit that, “a lot of people feel the joke was in extremely bad taste, no matter which daughter of yours he was referring to,” but not before Palin pointed out that, “regardless, it was a degrading comment about a young woman,” and no joke of that nature should be tolerated, no matter how old the victim of the joke is.

Lauer noted, “At the end of your statement you said that ‘a joke like this contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.’ Now, it was a joke. It was probably by most standards in bad taste.”

Leave aside the question of by which standards it was in good taste, Lauer the T.V. star feigned ignorance of the media’s influence on America’s culture when he asked Palin, “But can you really connect the dots to criminal activity the way you did in that statement?”

But Lauer was not done defending Letterman. Palin issued a statement refusing to appear on Letterman’s show stating, “it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman.” Lauer asked, “Are you suggesting that David Letterman can't be trusted around a 14-year-old girl ...Well is that not perhaps in bad taste also, governor? If you're, you know, suggesting that a 62-year-old man couldn't be trusted?”

So Lauer equated a disgusting sexual joke about a young woman with Palin’s statement, and then forced a mother to defend herself for wanting to protect her young daughter from a man who insulted and humiliated her with the joke.

That’s “extremely bad taste.”

Matt Lauer Admits That Sarah Palin Isn't Stupid

Of course, if Palin was a liberal, gay-marriage-supporting, pro-abortion advocate who aborted her fetus instead of letting it live after it was diagnosed with having Down's Syndrome, she'd be BRILLIANT!!! After all, that's the world the press lives in.

Matt Lauer Is A Racist Pig

Because only in the liberal media can Don Imus be condemned for calling a bunch of Black girls "ho's", while Matt Lauer gets away with calling a Alberto Gonzales, son of a Mexican-American, a "pinata":

In a comment that’s bound to outrage Hispanic Americans, NBC’s Matt Lauer referred to outgoing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as a “piñata.”

On Tuesday morning’s “Today” show, Lauer spoke with Democratic pundit James Carville about Gonzales and “the venom in Washington right now,” and said:

“When it comes right down to it, strange dynamic, an only-in Washington story. There are a lot of Democrats who just victimized and villainized Alberto Gonzales over these last eight months, but when it comes right down to it this morning, are not all that happy he’s gone, because in some ways, they’ve lost a piñata, haven’t they?”

A piñata is a brightly-coloured paper container filled with sweets and/or toys. It is generally suspended on a rope from a tree branch or ceiling and is commonly used during Mexican celebrations. A person then swings at the pinata in an attempt to break it open and release the gifts.