The Media II - Falsehoods about Gore

While many may no longer remember it, a major reason for Gore’s defeat in the election of 2000, among others, was the oft repeated charge, carried widely by the media, that Gore had difficulty with the truth; that at best he exaggerated a lot, and at worst that he was a congenital liar. What was that based on?

There were two major charges: 

1.) That Gore claimed he invented the Internet, and
2.) That he had discovered the environmental disaster at Love Canal and was instrumental in the 
passing of the Superfund law,  
3.) and that neither was true.

The fact is that Gore made neither claim and that what he claimed was in fact entirely true. With respect to the Internet, Gore said, “I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” 

Here are the facts:

In 1989, Gore introduced the National High-Performance Computer Technology Act, a five-year, $1.7 billion program to expand the capacity of the information highway to connect government, industry, and academic institutions. Signed by President Bush in 1991, the bill supported research and development for an improved national computer system, and assisted colleges and libraries in connecting to the new network. In 1989, when few public officials grasped the profound changes that new information technology would bring, Gore saw them plainly. "I genuinely believe that the creation of this nationwide network will create an environment where work stations are common in homes and even small businesses," he told a House committee in the spring of 1989.

On this basis Gore said in an interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN, “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” As can be seen, this was entirely true. HE DID NOT SAY HE “INVENTED” THE INTERNET. 

But of course, the RNC lie machine quickly changed the quote and the media ran with it misquoting Gore over and over again and spreading the malicious lie that Gore was a congenital liar.

Similarly on Love Canal and the Superfund law Gore in speaking to a group of high school students in Concord, N.H. exhorted them to reject cynicism and to recognize that individual citizens can effect important changes. As an example, he cited a high school girl from Toone, Tenn., a town that had experienced problems with toxic waste. She brought the issue to the attention of Gore's congressional office in the late 1970s. "I called for a congressional investigation and a hearing," Gore told the students. "I looked around the country for other sites like that. I found a little place in upstate New York called Love Canal. Had the first hearing on that issue, and Toone, Tennessee---that was the one that you didn't hear of. But that was the one that started it all." Gore was referring to Toone, Tenn. As having started it all.

After learning about the Toone situation, Gore looked for other examples and "found" a similar case at Love Canal. He was not claiming to have been the first one to discover Love Canal, which already had been evacuated. He simply needed other case studies for the hearings.

The next day, The Washington Post stripped Gore's comments of their context and gave them a negative twist “I was the one that started it all,' he said." [WP, Dec. 1, 1999] The New York Times ran a slightly less contentious story with the same false quote: "I was the one that started it all."

Instead of taking the offensive against these misquotes, Gore tried to head off the controversy by clarifying his meaning and apologizing if anyone got the wrong impression. Maybe he should have taken the offensive but it is difficult if not impossible to take on the Washington Post and the NY Times and the rest of the media.

The national pundit shows quickly picked up the story of Gore's new exaggeration.

“It seems to me... he's now the guy who created the Love Canal [case]. I mean, isn't this getting ridiculous?... Isn't it getting to be delusionary?"Matthews of CNBC's "Hardball" turned to his baffled guest, Lois Gibbs, the Love Canal resident who is widely credited with bringing the issue to public attention. She sounded confused about why Gore would claim credit for discovering Love Canal, but defended Gore's hard work on the issue. "I actually think he's done a great job," Gibbs said. "I mean, he really did work, when nobody else was working, on trying to define what the hazards were in this country and how to clean it up and helping with the Superfund and other legislation." [CNBC's "Hardball," Dec. 1, 1999]

That night, CNBC's "Hardball" returned to the Love Canal story. "It reminds me of Snoopy thinking he's the Red Baron," laughed Chris Matthews. "I mean how did he get this idea? Now you've seen Al Gore in action. That he invented the Internet. He now is the guy who discovered Love Canal." 

Yet, while the national media was excoriating Gore, the Concord students who were present for the original quote, pressed for a correction from The Washington Post and The New York Times. 

Finally, on Dec. 7, a week after Gore's comment, the Washington Post published a partial correction, tucked away as the last item in a corrections box. 

Three days later, The New York Times followed suit with a correction of its own, but again without fully explaining Gore's position. While the students voiced disillusionment, the two reporters involved showed no remorse for their mistake. "I really do think that the whole thing has been blown out of proportion," said Katharine Seelye of the Times. "It was one word."

IT IS A SAD STORY AND IT DOES NOT REFLECT WELL ON OUR MEDIA.