MSM owes Al Gore a HUGE apology...NOW!

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Fri, 28 Apr 2006 19:42:57 -0700 (PDT)

MSM owes Al Gore a HUGE apology...NOW!

 

 

 

(Hey, sorry we screwed up your presidency. OK?)

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/wired-owes-al-gore-an-apo_b_19980.ht\

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Eric Boehlert

Wired Owes Al Gore an Apology

 

 

READ MORE: Iraq, Al Gore, Global Warming, George W. Bush

 

If Wired magazine considers its current laudatory cover story on Al

Gore to be a sort of make-good for the role the magazine played in

launching a phony press accusation against the VP in 2000 -- an

accusation that took on a life of its own and helped define Gore as a

so-called exaggerator -- than Wired needs to think again.

 

Wired ought to apologize to Gore once and for all. In fact,

given Gore's continued renaissance, with him being proven stone-cold

right about the dangers of global warming and the insanity of invading

Iraq -- two positions the MSM often mocked him for in real time --

it's likely Wired won't be the last outlet forced to issue an apology

of sorts for its previously dishonest coverage of Gore. But if Wired

acts fact, it could be the first.

 

Media and political junkies may recall Wired News played a key

role in helping create the myth that Gore once awkwardly claimed to

have invented the Internet. Indeed, Wired's new Gore profile can't

resist revisiting the tale in its headline: " He invented the Internet

(sort of). " The inventing-the-Internet charade represented a new low

in MSM campaign journalism; a case in which a fabricated story came to

dominate the coverage. And make no mistake, it dominated. In

researching my new book on Bush and the press, I went back to the 2000

election and counted more than 4,800 television, newspaper and

magazine mentions during the campaign of Gore supposedly claiming to

have invented the Internet. The fact that it was not true seemed to be

of little interest to a press corps often obsessed with tearing Gore

down. (Gore was a fake and Bush was authentic, remember?)

 

The tale was first hatched by the Wired News, the " online home

of Wired Magazine. " On March 11 1999, Wired's Declan McCullagh posted

a nasty article mocking Gore for his little-noticed comments to CNN's

Wolf Blitzer that, " During my service in the United States Congress, I

took the initiative in creating the Internet. " Inelegant wording

perhaps, but Wired treated Gore's statement as an outrageously false

claim. (McCullagh later bragged, " I was the first reporter to question

the vice president's improvident boast. " ) To give the story some

oomph, Wired downplayed the real role Gore played legislatively in

helping shepherd the Internet's commercial applications to life (even

Newt Gingrich vouched for that), did not call the Gore campaign for

additional comment or explanation, but did include a quote from

conservative flak who ridiculed the VP. In fact, the GOP partisan was

the only person apparently contacted by Wired for its Gore story.

 

The caustic Wired story was quickly picked up by Republicans who,

busy planting the Gore-is-a-liar narrative in the press, began the

mantra that Gore claimed to have " invented " the Internet. He never

did. Nonetheless, pundits on the right (Bill Kristol) and left (Mark

Shields) unloaded on Gore, as journalists ran with with the much more

pleasing " invented " phrase. Even in its follow-up Gore/internet

article, Wired, which knew Gore never claimed to have " invented "

anything, effortlessly adopted the GOP spin, reporting in the very

first paragraph that Gore " claimed to have invented the Internet. " For

that, Wired announced in 1999, the VP was " spewing half-witted comments. "

 

Admit it Wired, it's time for that apology.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/wired-owes-al-gore-an-apo_b_19980.ht\

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