In defense of Al Gore

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from DrudgeReport:

Published on Monday, June 12, 2000 in the Manchester Guardian

Who Is Pinocchio? Yes, There Is A Nose That Is Getting Longer Every Day But It Doesn't Belong To Al Gore

by Harold Evans The question of the day is who has Pinocchio's nose, the one that grows longer with every lie he tells. Jim Nicholson, chairman of the Republican National Committee, is trying to graft the nose on Al Gore and Rupert Murdoch's New York Post has been foremost in obliging. More or less every day, it runs a caricature of Al with Nose in a sequence of scoreboxes, each purporting to document "Al's Lies". By Saturday, they were up to No 14.

Nicholson's rhinoplasty is as deft as a blindfold party kid trying to pin a tail on a donkey. You would not expect a Bush campaigner to be fastidious about fib and fact, and the New York Post makes no pretence of being impartial, but what is surprising is how Nicholson's faxes have infiltrated coverage in mainstream press and television. Its editors and writers would blanch at the suggestion that they are recycling Republican propaganda. That is how it seems to the Democrats, but the paranoia is misplaced. What is happening is professional deformation.

The American press gets locked into Story Mode Syndrome (SMS) much more than the more varied, more cantankerous British press; and then awkward facts that would spoil a story line are flotsam on a surging tide. Now everyone is busy parsing Gore as a self-aggrandising liar. With the speed and proliferation of media in the electronic age, the old standards of checking have lapsed. By three or four news cycles, a minor piece of misreporting can incrementally morph into a monster, and checking its genealogy is like trekking back to the source of the Zambesi. Bring the snake bite serum for the following four.

1. The internet. Everyone in America knows that Gore claimed to have invented the internet. Only he never did make that claim. "Invention" suggests a solo effort in a laboratory. What Gore said was different: "During my service in the United States Congress I took the initiative in creating the internet". Gore was indeed in the forefront of legislative initiatives to create the internet. Columbia University's James Traub, who chaired the computer science and telecommunications board, says: "Al Gore was perhaps the first political leader to grasp the importance of networking the country . . . At the time he was a senator from a fairly small south-eastern state and I was amazed at his national vision." Gore followed through in eight years as vice-president; back then, the mockery was for talking about some nonsense called "an information superhighway". Those who reported Gore as claiming invention might argue they were paraphrasing. But the media echo chamber guarantees further distortion. "Vice-President Gore tells a reporter the internet was his idea. Nice try, Al." (Wired magazine)

2. Love Story. The Boston Globe's Walter Robinson and Ann Scales attacked Gore's veracity: "He has also said that he and his wife, Tipper, were the models for the movie Love Story, only to be contradicted by the author, Erich Segal." Their source was Time magazine. Trouble is, Gore never made that claim and Segal never contradicted him. Chatting on the press plane about movies for a couple of hours, Gore had simply remarked to two Time magazine writers on a newspaper interview in which Segal had described Al and Tipper as his models for the movie. True. The Tennessean did so report, but it misquoted Segal, who had told the reporter he based only the male in the movie on Gore. So Segal's "contradiction" was a correction for a newspaper, not Gore. Segal noted: "Al attributed it to a newspaper. Time thought it was more piquant to leave that out." End of story? Not a bit. Heavyweight commentators seized on Love Story to lash Gore for "inflating his past", "bragging" and "prevaricating".

3. The farm boy. "My father taught me how to clear land with a doubleheaded axe . . . how to plough a steep hillside with a team of mules." Nicholson faxed the celebrity press corps that Gore was lying because he was really brought up in the posh Fairfax Hotel in Washington. In fact, as even critical biographers confirm, Gore's Dad did make him spend long tough summers doing backbreaking chores on the family farm.

4. The Love Canal. Visiting Concord High School in New Hampshire, Gore urged the students not to be cynical about politics. He said he had been stimulated to hold hearings on toxic waste at Toone, Tennessee, and the Love Canal, New York, by a letter from a high school student. "It all happened because one high school student got involved." The Washington Post and the the Washington Times turned that into Gore saying: "I was the one that started it all." It continues to be recycled as a "typical" Al Gore lie.

Yes, there is a nose that is getting longer every day but it doesn't belong to Gore . . .

-- Fairness (truth@the.ready), June 12, 2000

Answers

You forgot to change your address, truth@the.ready. Your the guy who said the Feds didn't toast the children at Waco. You put a lot of effort in that one,too.

-- KoFE (your@town.USA), June 12, 2000.

Well, I don't care much for politics and spin, but I do find articles that correct the record with facts refreshing (assuming these are accurate corrections, which I am at this point). I would like to see these kind of articles on all kinds of misinformation, misquotes, and the like. Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, whatever, bring the facts on.

-- FactFinder (FactFinder@bzn.com), June 12, 2000.

Here is the best defense for
Al Gore that I am aware of...

"Mr. Spoiled Baby" himself, Shrubya!

"If I don't get what I want,
I'll pout until I get what I want"



-- Hawk (flyin@hi.again), June 12, 2000.

Hawk,

You are pro Second Amendment, right?

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), June 12, 2000.

I'll wind up voting for Bush. I hate tho when he gets the look that reminds of Garfield's Jon. That smug goofy thing that happens just after he thinks he's said something smart. Anybody else notice that?

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), June 13, 2000.


J, yes I am pro 2nd ammendment. Pro Constitution with the exception of one or two areas.

Carlos, yes I have seen all kinds of weird pitiful smirks and pouting frowns from Shrubya when he speaks. I think he's got serious brain damage from all those years of getting high and stoned. The thing that amazes me is that someone who is running for the most powerful position in the world can be such a wussy. I thought Bush Sr. was a sleazy spineless weasel, but Junior makes his Daddy look like Arnold Schwarznegger. Watching him speak is amusing, because most of the time he seems to be either whining, pouting, or babbling incoherently. He doesn't come across with much conviction when he is speaking about what he is going to do for this country, because he doesn't believe his own words. He is weak, and is only concerned about himself and his special interests.

-- Hawk (flyin@hi.again), June 13, 2000.


I'm not trying to be impolite but... does it really make much of a difference who the President is?

-- Will (righthere@home.now), June 13, 2000.

It reminds me of how the "truth" about Y2K got twisted around and taken out of context to make them appear to other than they were.

Mistruths are mistruths, whether they are about Y2K or a candidate for the presidency. To propagate untrue rumors and twisted reporting in either case makes a person wonder just how much can be believed by the source.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), June 13, 2000.


Hawk,

You realize that weird Al Gore is pro gun control, don't you?

You also realize that G.W. Bush signed concealed carry into law as Governor of Texas, don't you?

It's sad to see your hatred of the man get in the way of the issues.

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), June 13, 2000.

Will:

It made a difference that Clinton was President. Does anyone have a count and analysis of all the Executive Orders?

-- Normally (Oxsys@aol.com), June 13, 2000.



Gore thinks it would be a good idea to require licenses for those buying new guns, not for those who already own them. I don't have a problem with that, as long as they don't go overboard with the fees.

As a big-time supporter of the corporate establishment and a key player for the NWO agenda, Shrubya is much more dangerous for this country and our economy.

I don't like either of the scum, but Gore is the lesser of two evils.

-- Hawk (flyin@hi.again), June 13, 2000.


Hawk,

I disagree with your view that Al Gore "only" wants to license new gun owners. It is my contention that registration ultimately leads to confiscation. It always has before.

That being said, since you are a firm believer in the NWO, how does affirming Texans' right to carry concealed further the NWO agenda? I thought the NWO's agenda on guns was to ultimately ban them so that they would find no resistance to their plan for world domination. If Bush is an NWO shill as you say, why would he sign concealed carry into law? It would appear that Gore is much more likely than Bush to be the front man for the NWO agenda of disarming America.

Finally, how is Bush potentially worse for the economy than Mr. global-warming, ban-the-combustion-engine, Weird Al Gore?

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), June 13, 2000.

How is a concealed weapon going to stop the NWO? Texas has always been a gun-crazy state, and Shrubya is merely using it as a way to the top. Remember, Shrubya said he thought the million mom march was a good thing. He doesn't care what Texas thinks anymore, he wants the votes of those moms so he can get in office and help the corporations become even more powerful. What are you going to do when Shrubya kicks you out of your house so that his buddies can build a refinery on your property, pull out your concealed weapon?

-- Hawk (flyin@hi.again), June 13, 2000.

J:

I'd have to go with Hawk on this one. You see only one platform from Smirk...the one about guns. Have you looked at any of his others? [I'd admit they're hard to find.] Do you live in Texas? I do. Coherence is not exactly Smirk's high-point. Do you want a president that agrees with you on one issue, but can't toss two coherent sentences together?

I don't agree with much of what Gore represents, but at least he doesn't make foolish statements and then smirk as though he said something meaningful. I can't wait for the televised debates to occur. If a political cartoonist didn't already think of it, I'll suggest "Who do you think better to run the country, folks...Beavis or Butthead?"

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), June 13, 2000.


Hawk,

Let me see if I am following you.

1) The NWO wants to take over the world and enslave Americans as part of their agenda.
2) To accomplish this, they must disarm America (as we won't go quietly otherwise).
3) Weird Al Gore wants to make it HARDER for Americans to own firearms, (and in my opinion, easier to confiscate them later).
4) Bush made it EASIER for Texans to carry concealed.

Therefore, the obvious conclusion is:
5) Bush is an NWO shill.

You stated that Bush would be bad for the economy, but then you say that his buddies are going to kick me out of my house to build a refinery. Isn't building a refinery GOOD for the economy? Weird Al "Global Warming" Gore is the one who wants to restrict industry, thus HARMING the economy.

I believe that your emotions of disliking Bush are clouding your ability to reason clearly on this subject.

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), June 13, 2000.


I believe that your emotions of disliking "weird" Gore are clouding your ability to reason clearly on this subject.

-- Hawk (flyin@hi.again), June 13, 2000.

Anita,

Would you rather have an intelligent, smooth, highly polished man who opposes your views, or an average, awkward, rough around the edges man who shares your views?

I don't care if Bush is a Rhodes scholar (look at the last one we had), I care for his platform. His platform is the Republican platform, which with I mostly agree.

If you believe in the points of the Democrat platform, please vote for Al Gore. But I say that you, and anyone else, is an idiot if you vote for HOW a candidate talks, instead of WHAT a candidate believes.

As for Hawk's argument, I say much the same to him. If you believe in the points of the Democrat platform, please vote for Al Gore. But I say that you, and anyone else, is an idiot if you vote for a candidate whose views are opposed to your own, because you don't like the facial expressions of the candidate that shares your views.

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), June 13, 2000.

Hawk,

Please explain how being for big business is bad for the economy, while being for increased EPA regulation is good for the economy.

Please explain how being for the Second Amendment is helping to further the NWO agenda, while being against the Second Amendment is not helping not to further the NWO agenda.

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), June 13, 2000.

I think Jr is a victom of his birth. He, personally, would probably be just as happy to work at a manual job and spend his evenings in the local bar. His makeup just does not go hand in hand with running a country. He doesn't seem to have an origional idea of his own, he is front, which will be controlled by ????

Too bad they didn't allow McCain to win the nomination.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), June 14, 2000.


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