Corporate Media, apply directly to the forehead!
Corporate Media, apply directly to the forehead!
Corporate Media, apply directly to the forehead!
Corporate Media, apply directly to the forehead!
Many people have heard that obnoxious TV ad, but may not realize its pertinence to modern political “reporting.” In campaign 2000 the Corporate Media cost Al Gore millions of votes by a relentless attack for 20 months, starting in March 1999. The result was a significant rise in Gore’s negative poll ratings, first in the summer of 1999 (“Invented the Internet”) and then culminating in election day 2000 exit polls indicating a public concern for Gore’s “exaggerations,” which were invented from whole cloth by the CM.
Gore may well be the nominee in 2008. Every campaign is different and this will surely be no exact repeat of 2000. They will not be able to repeat their lies, because the bloggers are starting to provide accountability. Also Iraq, the mounting hurricanes (climate crisis) and two terms of BushCo will make 2008 very different, especially for Gore. But it is important for us to understand what they did for two reasons:
1) There are definitely vestiges of the anti-Gore treatment in the press; and
2) The pro-McCain press lovefest continues albeit with some early criticism of his hard-right strategy.
If you do not know what the press did in campaign 2000, I recommend reading Bob Somerby’s archives in dailyhowler.com. He deals both with the anti-Gore treatment and the pro-McCain treatment.
Why do some people still think Al Gore is boring? (They need to quit getting propaganda from the CM and watch An Inconvenient Truth, now out on DVD.) Why do some people still think McCain is a “Straight Talker” and a “maverick,” when he is one of the greatest self-promoting flip-floppers in modern political history?
Same answer for both questions: Corporate media! Apply directly to the forehead!
Those who don’t understand history are doomed to repeat it.
Drafting Gore 
madmouser said,
February 17, 2007 at 12:29 am
If we repeat history, does that mean that Gore will lose again?
algoredotorg said,
February 17, 2007 at 5:46 am
Strictly speaking he won, of course. And he won in a moral sense as well. He is extremely charismatic and Bush and Nader are disgraced. If they ran the election today, he would take votes from both Bush and Nader. The 2008 GOP candidate will have to peel off a lot of potential Gore voters to win.
RickB said,
February 17, 2007 at 2:02 pm
It’s possible he could enter the race with a Nobel prize and an Oscar, which probably trumps the current incumbents ‘D’ in reading comprehension.
algoredotorg said,
February 18, 2007 at 8:44 am
Not too shabby.