Former vice president and presidential candidate Al Gore gave a speech at The Media Center where he claimed democracy "is in grave danger" given what has happened in the media.
"I know that I am not the only one who feels that something has gone basically and badly wrong in the way America's fabled 'marketplace of ideas' now functions....
"As recently stated by Dan Rather - who was, of course, forced out of his anchor job after angering the White House - television news has been 'dumbed down and tarted up.'"
