For Immediate Release: Keith Appell (703) 683-5004 -- Thursday, March 25, 1999
Vol. Three, No. 12
Gore Has a History of Silly Flubs and Boasts, and the Networks Have a History of Ignoring Them
Which Vice President is the King of Gaffes?
Watch our video collection of Gore Gaffes
On ABC's This Week March 14, Bill Kristol noted Al Gore's gotten a free pass
on gaffes. George Stephanopoulos protested: "It's hard to say he's gotten a pass.
Every time he opens his mouth he gets popped." Not true on TV morning and evening
newscasts:
January 17, 1993:
In a tour of Monticello, Gore asked about a row of busts: "Who are these
people?" The New York Times explained the curator "helpfully identified
the unfamiliar faces: 'This is George Washington on the extreme right,' with Benjamin
Franklin close behind." TV coverage? Zero.
January 6, 1994: In a speech in Milwaukee praising the city's ethnic
diversity, Gore said America "can be e pluribus unum. Out of one,
many." TV coverage? Zero.
October 28, 1994: In Virginia, Gore attacked Oliver North's Senate bid
supporters as "the extreme right wing, the extra chromosome right
wing." Advocates for those with Down's Syndrome, caused by an extra chromosome, were
outraged. TV coverage? Zero.
November 1994: The November 28 New Yorker quoted
from letters Gore sent his father in the '60s saying anti-communism was a "form of
psychological ailment -- in this case a national madness," leading the U.S. into
"supporting fascist totalitarian regimes in the name of fighting
totalitarianism...For me the best example of all is the U.S. Army." TV coverage? Only
CNN aired a brief on World News November 20.
June 20, 1996: Gore attacked a GOP plan to bar new immigrants from
Social Security as "un-American, simply un-American." TV coverage? Only CNN's Inside
Politics carried it four days later, as an example of "tart political talk this
month from members of both parties."
July 3, 1996: The New York Times reported that in 1988, Gore
told an audience of tobacco farmers, "I want you to know that with my own hands, all
of my life, I put it in the plant beds and transferred it. I've hoed it. I've dug in it.
I've sprayed it, I've chopped it, I've shredded it, spiked it, put it in the barn and
stripped it and sold it." TV coverage? Zero, even after Gore claimed in his maudlin
August 28 Chicago convention speech that his sister's death in 1984 spurred him to wage
war on the tobacco industry. Only CBS noted it before the election.
December 1997: Gore told Time's Karen Tumulty he and Tipper
were the inspiration for Erich Segal's novel Love Story. TV coverage? CNN aired
it, as did NBC's Today. On the 22nd, The Washington Times noted Gore
claimed "2,000 years ago a homeless woman gave birth to a homeless child in a
manger," even though Joseph and Mary were traveling, not homeless. TV coverage? Zero.
June 15, 1998: Gore told Chicago Bull fans: "That Michael Jackson
is unbelievable, isn't he?" (That's Michael Jordan.) TV coverage? CBS Saturday
Morning paired it with Dan Quayle saying Republicans will beat Bill Clinton in 2000.
October 1, 1998: The Times of London reported Gore told rock
star Courtney Love at a Hollywood party "I'm a really big fan," but when she
snapped "Yeah right, name a song, Al," he said, "I can't name a song."
TV coverage? Zero.
October 12, 1998: Gore stumped for Democrats in Minnesota, saying,
"They will be the education team that Missouri needs." TV coverage? Zero.
March 9, 1999:
On CNN's Late Edition, Gore claimed: "During my service in the United States
Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." TV coverage? Nothing until
CNN's Bruce Morton reviewed several Gore gaffes on March 19, and ABC's Aaron Brown let
Gore joke about it on March 20's World News Tonight. Only Morton has noted Gore's
March 16 claim in Iowa that he was a farm boy who plowed steep hillsides with mules. --
Tim Graham
L. Brent Bozell III, Publisher; Brent Baker, Tim Graham, Editors;
Jessica Anderson, Brian Boyd, Geoffrey
Dickens, Mark Drake, Paul Smith, Media Analysts; Kristina Sewell, Research
Associate. For the latest liberal media bias, read the
CyberAlert at
www.mrc.org. |
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