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Currrent TV crisis hits harder in South of Market home
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Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore speaks at the World Business Summit on Climate Change
at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark Sunday, May 24, 2009.
Today I find myself punching the refresh button on my computer at the Yahoo news site more often than normal, awaiting word of the fate of two courageous young women caught in the middle of a high-scale international game of chicken.
As a mother it makes me sad, and fairly pissed off if you get right down to it.
I'm clicking to find out the fate of two San Francisco women, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who used to come through our neighborhood each day on their way to work at what probably was a young journalist's dream job. They were part of a cutting-edge techno start-up, backed by none other than Vice President Al Gore. They took on serious journalism projects, which led to their assignment on the North Korean border doing a story about the plight of enslaved women.
Now they are imprisoned, perhaps to be enslaved themselves in a hard-labor camp for up to 10 years. I simply can't imagine it.
Most likely down the road they will be released in some type of political spin nonsense that no one other than politicos like my husband can understand. All the rest of us -- and I'm guessing moms in North Korea would even agree with me here -- wonder how any one can take seriously the charge that these gals were engaged in "hostile acts" against a country as powerful as North Korea.
This topic comes up each time my husband and I walk our dogs past the Current TV offices on King Street. There are relatively small, with a guard now posted in the entry. My thoughts always turn to those women, and what they must be going through, and how unexpected this all is. His tends to focus on the politics of it, and the journalistic issues surrounding it.
We want to give Al Gore the benefit of the doubt that his powerful friends urged him to keep quiet and sit tight. But let's face it, he and his company have been silenced while at the same time they are trying to grow a social networking, independent television statement. How do you come back from that hit to your credibility?
Al Gore looks awful in this. He trots the globe championing the environment and other causes, while doing nothing publicly to defend his own employees, not to mention the critical importance of first amendment rights to the freedom of the press. If North Korea can so effectively immobilize the former vice president of the United States, doesn't that send a terrible message to the rest of the world about how we value our Constitution?
Again, this is the stuff I usually find beyond my interest level. My heart simply goes out to the families of these women, their fellow workers doing the best they can going to work each day while having to abide by some sort of silencing act. It has to be far tougher inside that office on King Street than any of those who worked their imagined.
Current TV is one of many of the really cool businesses that make San Francisco such an interesting job market. Since I'm in human resources, I often think how cool it would be to work with one of these type of places from the ground up. I imagine they thought that too, until their jobs took them into a nightmare they could never imagine.
Hopefully soon the women will be home, back at work in San Francisco, again a part of our community. Hopefully then we can finally hear the whole story, starting with Gore himself, who might have some explaining to do to the gals when they get back. Hopefully, Current TV will keep on growing through off this.
Until then, all we can do is wish these women and their families all the best.
More South of Market stuff:
- SoMa the book a must-read on SoMa the place.
- Careme 350 an affordable, elegant night out.
- Coit Tower run a great way to start weekend.
- Bay to Breakers winners set record.
- Sports Basement is a true gem.
- Great local recipes from my husband's kitchen.
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