Al Gore Sued By Media Consultant Over Current’s Sale To Al-Jazeera
Al Gore has been sued for selling Current to Al-Jazeera, as a Los Angeles media consultant contends in court papers that the sale idea was stolen from him by the former Vice President.
The media consultant sued Al Gore in a lawsuit filed at San Francisco Superior Court Tuesday, and, for those outside the realm of news and media, it’s a bit tricky to parse. News Al Gore is being sued comes two months after Al-Jazeera confirmed it would pay $500 million for the former veep’s Current TV, which is based in San Francisco where the suit was filed.
The news Al Gore is being sued over Current’s sale was broken on The Hollywood Reporter, and the trade mag explains at length the claims of plaintiff John Terenzio. Terenzio says he first floated the idea of an Al-Jazeera purchase for Current back in July in a detailed PowerPoint presentation made to Current TV board member Richard Blum.
THR explains from the papers in which Al Gore was sued that Terenzio says he met Blum in July and presented “a step-by-step approach for making the sale of the liberal media outlet to Al Jazeera palatable to U.S. lawmakers, pro-Israel factions, cable operators and, most importantly, the American public.”
Further, THR says, the suit against Gore alleges that “the structure proposed and the strategies developed were the same ones developed by Terenzio for CCTV and that there was a ‘mutual understanding that Terenzio would be compensated if Current TV utilized his idea to consummate a sale to Al Jazeera.’ ”
Terenzio left his presentation with Blum, and the papers in which Gore is being sued state that it was believed at the time “Gore was adamant in his rejection of the proposal to sell his liberal, environmentally friendly network to the oil-rich Quataris who owned Al-Jazeera, but that “apparently, Gore had a change of heart.”
Terenzio has sued Al Gore and Current for breach of implied agreement, unjust enrichment and quantum meruit, seeking $5 million per count alleged.
