I Still Love Al Gore

Even in the 1980's, when I was approaching puberty and just beginning to become aware of politics, I was enamored of Al Gore. To me, he represented a man who was the best that America had to offer-- grateful to be wealthy, and committed to improving the standard of living of all his fellow citizens because that's the right thing to do when you've made it yourself. I still remember the comic strip Doonesbury referring to him as "Prince Albert" long before he was the vice-president.

And I will never forget the way the mainstream press torpedoed his presidential campaign in 2000. The way they blithely repeated the falsehood that he 'claimed to have invented the Internet.' The way his last-minute move of a fund raiser to a Buddhist temple-- because they offered after the original venue fell through at the last minute-- was presented as "proof" that he was corrupt.

And the way that the mainstream press, over the last five years, has repeatedly given a pass to administrative corruption of the worst sort, when the popular winner of the 2000 election was a man of such impeccable standing.

The Rolling Stone article I link to is hopefully representative of the MSM's response to this administration's lethally indifferent response to Katrina (among other things). It's our duty to remind the press that their job is to report facts-- not to repeat innuendo and not to simply quote officials who are more than happy to lie to the public. This is must-read stuff, and not just because Al Gore is one of my heroes. It's also a valuable post-mortem on a journalistic mindset that failed the American public.