Current TV, the fledgling seven-year-old network founded by Al Gore, has been sold to Al Jazeera for $500 million. The Qatar-based news organization looks to rebrand the channel with its own content, which immediately caused cable operator Time Warner to drop the channel from its lineup.

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Al-Jazeera plans to euthanize the struggling, seven-year-old Current TV and turn it into Al-Jazeera America by adding five to 10 new U.S. bureaus beyond the five it has now. More than half of its content will be U.S. news, and the network will have its headquarters in New York, according to a rep.

But while Al-Jazeera will now be available in millions more American homes, it will not be seen on the nation's second-largest TV operator, Time Warner Cable, as they dropped Current TV immediately after the sale became final.

Al-Jazeera has been criticized for having a pro-Islamist bent, and accused of working with members of Al Qaeda. One of its journalists was arrested in Israel in 2011 on suspicion of being an agent of the Palestinian group Hamas. Dave Marash, a former "Nightline" reporter who worked for Al-Jazeera in Washington, said he left the network in 2008 in part because he sensed an anti-American bias there.

Another hurdle for Al-Jazeera is that few are watching Current TV now, with an average prime time viewership around 42,000 for shows starring disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Jennifer Granholm and other liberal pundits.

But Gore, on his way out the door, sees a bright future for Al-Jazeera America where his Current TV failed, saying both networks were founded "to give voice to those who are not typically heard; to speak truth to power; to provide independent and diverse points of view; and to tell the stories that no one else is telling."