![]() IGNORE GORE! When Al Gore made his formal proposal, the nations Big Press chose to doze: // link // print // previous // next //
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2006 WE THE FATUOUS/SON OF EARTH TONES: What fools we mortals be, The Bard wrote—and he was understating the problem. Was George Allens maternal grandfather Jewish? Why did Allen know or not know it? And what did Jim Webb write in that 27-year-old column? (Was the column written before or after that photo of Allen in high school?) In these, and similar ways, we pretend to conduct our public discussions. Read on to see the way we discuss the greatest known threats to our lives: IGNORE GORE: Al Gores film, An Inconvenient Truth, is on its last legs, as all films finally are; its showing in only 110 theaters, down from a high of 587. (Director: Davis Guggenheim.) On the bright side, it stands as the third-biggest documentary of all time, with an American gross topping $23 million. Almost surely, it will win the Oscar for documentary films next March. And who knows? Maybe Melissa Etheridge will win gold for Best Original Song, too. But thats the good news, and here comes the bad: On Monday afternoon, in a speech at NYU, Gore unveiled his formal plan to counter the effects of global warming. And the nations big news orgs buried it deep—if they bothered reporting it at all. The Washington Post gave Gores speech 484 words, placing it low on page 2. The New York Times—above-it-all always—gave the story 468 words, and a bottom-of-page 17 placement. And try to believe that this appeared as part of the New York Times treatment: REVKIN (9/19/06): Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma and chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said the Gore proposals would create ''economic calamity.Good God! There isnt a word in the Times report about the overwhelming scientific consensus on warming. But we did get the hear the crackpot Inhofe add to his famous crackpot claim that ''man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. Verily, we live at a time when the crackpots rule—and the Gores are assailed for their earth tones. But then, at least the Post and the Times pretended to cover the Gore proposal. According to Nexis, USA Today ran no story at all; ditto the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. And the Boston Globe didnt cover the story either. Back in the day, the Globe laid waste to major forests, wasting your time with the troubling story of the arthritis pills of the Gores troubling dog. They loved pretending that Gore was a liar. But the earths future? Pshaw! Boston slept. And the nations networks skipped the speech too. In 1999, Brian Williams was deeply troubled by Gores polo shirts. But not today, by his thoughts about warming. Given the silence of those big, lazy orgs, we can perhaps draw some small humor from the APs headline on its Gore story: Al Gore calls global warming a climate crisis, decries lack of action by leaders. The silence concerning Gores major speech deserves a bit of reflection: First, concerning global warming/climate crisis: Despite the vast consensus of world climate scientists, the press still isnt ready to cover this topic. Or at least, they arent prepared to cover this topic if it means paying attention to Gore. Second, concerning Campaign 08: Libs and Dems who would like Gore to run should not ignore the meaning of this. The commercial and intellectual success of Gores film gave the mainstream press an opportunity to rethink its trashing of the former Dem hopeful. Result? Film critics did so—and, on the whole, political pundits did not. Remember: These people are the emptiest life forms on earth. They defined Gore to their dim satisfaction in 1999 and 2000. They have no plans to rethink their scripts. We wish this didnt have meaning for Campaign 08. But it plainly does. Do the empty souls of your celebrity press corps plan to revise their scripts about Gore? Remember, these life-forms plainly arent human—and they are deeply, irretrievably programmed. Indeed, there they went again, Dear Readers, right there in this mornings Post! Lord help us! The life-forms known as Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts covered Gores work on warming: ARGETSINGER/ROBERTS (9/20/06): It's hard trying to save the world by yourself! So Al Gore is commissioning an army of Mini-Me's to help him do the work.Yes, we know—its just The Reliable Sources (one of the papers most widely-read features). But dont misunderstand what this typistry means. These life-forms were programmed in the fall of 1999; every time they type the word Gore, they know they must instantly type earth tones too. (And they must fashion a dimwit suggestion that crafty Gore is just cleverly angling for the next election. The life-form publicly known as Frank Rich is the king of this latter script.) Remember—these life-forms are programmed to type this way. And youve seen science fiction films! Nothing will ever deter them. Nothing will ever remove their fatuous scripts from their well-programmed minds. And yes—this does have meaning for Campaign 08. The young fellows at American Prospect wont tell you. But wed guess that this must affect Gores thoughts about a new White House race. GOT NO EXPECTATIONS: Somehow, Carl Pope believes that Gores speech has been getting big coverage. Click here. SON OF INHOFE: Jim Inhofe was sure that Gore would create economic calamity—but then, one of our liberal journals was saying that too! What follows is a fairly minor point. But what was Ezra Kleins reaction to Gores speech? Instantly, he flew into print, telling the world that Dumb-Ass Gore must have gone and fucked up his numbers! After receiving four comments from readers, Ezra back-slid, admitting that he didnt know what he was talking about. (Click here, and click here too.) (Warning! Somehow, Ezra counted only three comments at his own site—but then, hed been sure that Gores numbers were wrong!) Question: When will these fellows notice the obvious? When will they notice that Gore tends not to make the worlds dumbest errors? That he tends to know what hes talking about? Ezra left the earth tones out—but his reaction to this speech was just as scripted as that of the Posts Reliable ladies. We quote from Ezras fifth commenter (at his own site): I trust that Gore thinks through the policy and budgetary implications of his ideas. I'm sure he's run through the calculations at a pretty detailed level. Duh! Readers, do you think? Do you think that Gore thinks through his ideas? Gore has been right all along on the worlds biggest issues—but as a basic matter of instinct, hes still a presumed dumb-ass at the Prospect! Question: When will our fiery liberal leaders develop the common sense of their readers and throw off the scripting about Dumb-Ass Gore? Further question: When our liberal journals react so reliably, why do we need the Jim Inhofes? |