Robert Parry: Smearing Al Gore: Here We Go Again

[babylonsister]

Smearing Al Gore: Here We Go Again
by Robert Parry | Oct 14 2007



When people wonder how the United States ended up in today’s nightmarish predicament, a big part of the answer is that the right-wing message machine and the mainstream U.S. news media distorted reality at key moments about key people, perhaps most notably Al Gore during Campaign 2000.

That ability to twist reality has been a major focus of our reporting at Consortiumnews.com over the years Much of this work is reprised in our new book, Neck Deep.

But even now – when the consequences of the news media’s earlier “war on Gore” can be measured in the horrible death toll that has followed the Bush presidency – it appears that little has changed.

Lies and distortions about Al Gore remain an easy political commodity to sell, as we have seen in the renewed assault on Gore in the wake of his winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

As the news spread about the Nobel Committee’s recognition of Gore’s work publicizing the threat from global warming, both the right-wing media and major news outlets geared up to hype criticism of Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” in a ruling by an obscure British judge.

Hours before the Nobel Prize announcement, the Washington Post ran a news story quoting High Court Judge Michael Burton as detecting “nine errors” in the documentary and asserting that the alleged mistakes “arise in the context of alarmism and exaggeration in support of his political thesis.”

Burton ruled that British schools could show the film but only with a cautionary advisory for students.

Burton’s ruling became a cause celebre for the American Right’s powerful media, which used it to discredit both Gore and the movement seeking to stop global warming. Mainstream news outlets, such as CNN, quickly fell into line, citing Burton’s ruling almost every time Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize was mentioned on Oct. 12.

more...

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/10448

[papau]

1. Not one US media noted the word "errors" was quotes as it referred to the petition and not to the

case at hand -

The judge found 9 areas where total scientific consensus had not yet been achieved - he did not find any errors.

And the 9 areas including one - no submerged islands have been reported - where the judge if he had read his London papers - could have found informations on Indian Ocean Islands that have been abandoned due to submerging.

[xchrom]

2. this is a great distillation of the conservative attempt to control history through

the medium of al gore.

perfect.

and it's been happening most notably since ronald reagan.

and it is designed.

it is insidious, invasive and it is extreme -- extreme and helped along by moderates.

[populistdriven]

3. I turned on faux news for the first time in years and saw this

NASCAR flap raises caution flag for Dems
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071014/ap_on_re_us/nascar_political_plague

Tear down the machine!!!

[xchrom]

4. i get very concerned -- bush is the symptom -- not the cause.

the faceless machine isn't going away because there is a temporary set back for the republick party.

the heritage foundation is still there, the cato institute, american enterprize institute, murdoch, and on and on.

liberal/progressive people must reconceptualize in some very fundamental ways to take this on.