Current

The best television programming out there isn't on TV. It's on VBS. Alright, that's a bit of an overstatement, but Vice Magazine's VBS broadband channel, which is currently in beta, is into overstatements. With director Spike Jonze as its creative director, VBS has set out to "rescue you from television's deathlike grip" and "exploit every Utopian vision the internet has thus far failed to live up to." Big words from a little network, but so far, they're kicking broadband ass and taking names.

The network is a heady, hipster mix of politics, fun and music. Some of the best programming so far - Heavy Metal in Baghdad, a five-part series in which the filmmakers search for Baghdad's only heavy metal band Acrassicauda. The short series presents a unique take on civilian life in Iraq. Soft Focus - former Nation of Ulysses and Make-Up frontman Ian Svenonius interviews musicians like Chan Marshall, Will Oldham and Ian Mackaye. Dos and Don'ts and Friends - alternative comics and other off-kilter folks hold forth on still images of sexy, sexy people doing sexy, sexy things.

This seems to still be under the category of "rumor" for the time being, but a couple news outlets are reporting that Madeleine Smithberg, who co-created The Daily Show along with Lizz Winstead, has been hired as an executive producer for Al Gore's not very successful Current TV. If this turns out to be true, it will be interesting to find out just why Smithberg was chosen for this position. I admit I know very little about her outside of The Daily Show, and if IMDb is to be trusted, she hasn't done much else except work on The Daily Show. Maybe Al Gore wants to turn Current TV into a comedy channel. You know, a channel people laugh with instead of at. Okay, probably not.

Most people know that public radio is a huge thing here in Minnesota. We are the home of Lake Wobegon, after all. Recently, Minnesota Public Radio filed a lawsuit against Al Gore's Current TV, claiming that internet users would confuse Gore's independent network with "The Current" a popular MPR-owned music station here in the Twin Cities. The lawsuit claims the radio station had already applied for a trademark of the name "Current" four months before Gore's new venture was changed from "INdTV" to "Current TV." Representatives from Current TV issued a statement noting that over 300 businesses use the word "current" in their name.

It's easy to dismiss this as just a frivolous lawsuit. After all, who's going to confuse a radio station with an independent TV network? What bothers me even more, though, is that public radio should be championing a TV network that eschews corporate news for citizen journalism. I would have expected MPR to support Current TV, not try to bring it down.

Remember how Al Gore was going to launch his own 24-hour news network? He did it. Back in August, actually. The network relies mostly on young documentary filmmakers to fill up its hours and hours of content time. But, 24 hours a day is a heck of a lot of time to fill and Current needs help. It already is seeking submissions from the viewing public, but now the network has produced a short film about how to produce a short film. That filmmaking guide, which can be viewed online, features big names like Sean Penn and Robert Redford, who give advice on storytelling and journalism. Current is soliciting more thought-provoking stories, rather than the mini-features that always seem to be playing.

Does anybody even watch Current? Is it news? Is it thought-provoking? Issue-oriented? I've only seen a little of it and, quite frankly, I think I'm too old for it. It kind-of seems like MTV for 20-somethings.