US News Media's "War on Gore"

[otohara]

All this disdain for Gore was back with a vengeance after his testimony week before last. It's no wonder he doesn't want "run" for president again.

By Robert Parry


Thursday 22 March 2007

When historians sort out what happened to the United States at the start of the 21st Century, one of the mysteries may be why the national press corps ganged up like school-yard bullies against a well-qualified Democratic presidential candidate while giving his dimwitted Republican opponent virtually a free pass..

How could major news organizations, like The New York Times and The Washington Post, have behaved so irresponsibly as to spread falsehoods and exaggerations to tear down then-Vice President Al Gore - ironically while the newspapers were berating him for supposedly lying and exaggerating?

In a modern information age, these historians might ask, how could an apocryphal quote like Gore claiming to have "invented the Internet" been allowed to define a leading political figure much as the made-up quote "let them eat cake" was exploited by French propagandists to undermine Marie Antoinette two centuries earlier?

Why did the U.S. news media continue ridiculing Gore in 2002 when he was one of the most prominent Americans to warn that George W. Bush's radical policy of preemptive war was leading the nation into a disaster in Iraq?

Arguably, those violations of journalistic principles at leading U.S. news organizations, in applying double standards to Gore and Bush, altered the course of American history and set the nation on a very dangerous course.

Now, Gore has reemerged in Washington appealing to his former colleagues in the House and Senate to act urgently on the threat from global warming.

In the initial press coverage of Gore's return to Capitol Hill, there remains a touch of the old mocking tone, such as The New York Times' front-page article describing Gore as "a heartbreak loser turned Oscar boasting Nobel hopeful globe-trotting multimillionaire pop culture eminence," but not nearly the level of open disdain shown in Campaign 2000.

In early 2000, we published a story about that hostility and how it changed the dynamic of that crucial presidential race. We noted that "to read the major newspapers and to watch the TV pundit shows, one can't avoid the impression that many in the national press have decided that Vice President Al Gore is unfit to be elected the next President of the United States."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032207I.shtml

[BearSquirrel2]

1. Gore the "liar"

I heard this stuff at the time and I just figured that Gore liked to exaggerate. Afterward, I found out that either:

1) What Gore was saying was 100% true and the media was lying.
2) That the media mis-reported something that Gore had said, once again they were lying.


The truth about all of this is that the media was so lazy that they were using copy provided to them by the GOP.

[unblock]

2. you do them way too much credit to attribute it all to laziness

after all, they didn't take copy provided to them by the dnc as well.
plus, any reporter or editor or internet user had easy access to the truth.

i'd use "malice aforethought; but if you're feeling generous, i'd suggest "gross incompetence".

[farmboxer]

3. MSM Media Hates Gore because of the hearings on Telecommunications

back in the '80's - early '90's. I was a part of it back then. Then, Sen. Gore was known as the brain of the Senate. Gore was, and still is, a very honest person. To much to explain, but Gore was chairperson of the hearings, stopped the big cable companies from becoming a monopoly, stopped them from outlawing sat. dishes. Popa Bush vetoed the bill, but the veto was overruled. Yep, Popa Bush wanted a monopoly, looks like the MSM never forgave Gore for taking up for "We The People"! Afterall, what is a plutocracy all about? Yes, the damned MSM hated Gore then and they hate Gore now! I watch Free Speech TV, FSTV, chan. 9415 on Dish Net, and LINK TV on chan. 9410 on Dish Net. Just about the only place I can find the truth, except for the Internet, The Nation Mag., and Keith Olberman on MSNBC, which is the only MSM show I watch. Fox is worse than going to the Republican headquarters during an election! MSM is trying to cut down Dems once again. They have never admitted the Coup, or coups, etc.

I suggest, ones who are interested, people go to the archives and check out the hearings on Telecommunications. Al Gore did an excellent job. I was involved in a grassroots uproar! FM American and C-Sat, great sat radio on 6.2 audio subcarrier, etc. TV did not cover much of it, C-Span did carry a lot of it, but it was a real war! Gore would have been treated differently if he had sold out, like Pappa Bush! Gore was extremely brave, took a lot of courage to stand up for "We the people", but he did! Anyway, that's why the media hates Gore to the extreme, and I do mean to the extreme! I have nothing but the highest respect for President Gore. Bush is not the President, never was elected in the first place. Yes, news media lied like Hell!

[unblock]

4. interesting insight. i never quite understood why they had it in for al.

[RestoreGore]

5. What a good decent man he is

Which is why the media hates him as well. As you stated he exposes them for what they are and understood their place and spoke for the people. That is why CURRENT tv is such a breath of fresh air. Don't think his success with that hasn't sparked animosity as well.

[riverdeep]

7. Too bad Clinton signed into law

the heinous 1996 telecommunications act. I remember watching the news on the day it was approved. I thought the network news (I was still watching that crap back then) would go into extensive coverage. There was a 30 second mention before commercial. We're dealing with the ramifications to this day.

Honestly, I don't know why the pubs hate him so much. In mentality he was a dem, in practice he was a pub.

[Poiuyt]

6. I heard a sportscaster (of all people) commenting on all of Gore's

private jets and all the pollution they cause. Good grief! Yes, there definitely IS a war on Gore.

[riverdeep]

8. Gore has done a great deal

to change his image, and he did it without the help of the media, who just wanted him to go away. He could have become a Dukakis, never to be heard from again, but he reinvented himself. And it's true that MSM is trying to take him down. He threatens their masters at a fundamental level. Industry being held responsible for environmental havoc? You better believe they want that idea dead as soon as possible. If he does run, the hatchet job on him will make the one on Kerry seem like nothing.