Daily Howler attacks Frank Rich re: embrace of media's anti-Gore script.

[Karmadillo]

And Somerby pretty much proves his point. Why is Rich so willing to parrot the anti-Gore media script? Hard to figure. The column is well worth reading all the way through to the end.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh060206.shtml

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Plainly, in one way, Rich isn’t dumb; he’d clearly do well on an IQ test, and he knows exactly how to rework all approved scripts of his cohort. (This includes many high-minded scripts which are thunderously critical of Bush.) But in fact, some of his work in the past ten years goes well beyond what you’d think of as “dumb”—and his column this Sunday was a Rich case in point (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 6/1/06). By normal standards, Rich’s balance of the equities was simply bizarre. Rich was upset that an audience laughed at Gore’s jokes, and that the group was “multicultural;” somehow, this was supposed to balance off several decades of sound judgments by Gore. (He was right on the Gulf War! Right on Iraq! But omigod—students have laughed at his jokes!) And when Rich wanted to make us think that Candidate Gore “muted his views” about science, he dredged up an incident so utterly trivial that Rich’s own Times—like almost all papers—never even bothered to report it. (Rich’s readers, of course, had no way to know this. They thought they were hearing the latest grim tale about Candidate Gore’s appalling performance.) But this is the way our discourse has worked over the course of the past dozen years, as pundits like Rich invent bogus facts and defy normal logic, all in service to their cohort’s great scripts. (Called “narratives” by Tom Toles in this brilliant cartoon, which captures their love of these stories.) In fact, Rich’s performance in Sunday’s column goes well beyond normal boundaries of “dumb,” closer to the realms of “bizarre” and “incomprehensible.” And that odd performance continued yesterday as the pundit chatted with Imus, offering up his brilliant thoughts about Gore’ clownish new film.

The things Rich told Imus went well beyond “dumb.” And since Rich would do well on an IQ test, the e-mailer’s question should trouble all liberals: Why exactly have pundits like Rich adopted this puzzling stance toward Gore? And what explains the sometimes puzzling tone they’ve adopted toward other Big Democrats?

Rich was eager to share his thoughts on Gore’s film with Imus. (The film was directed by Davis Guggenheim.) “Suddenly, Al Gore has this little movie that’s essentially a chalk talk,” the great savant said, “and people are running around like crazy in the Democratic Party.” A few minutes after this opening putdown, Imus sought a fuller view. Here was Rich’s opening profile:

RICH (6/1/06): Well, it’s, it’s like at the high end of those “good-for-you” movies that you used to have to watch in high school. It’s a compelling lecture about global warming with a lot of slides and power point stuff and intermingled with it, weirdly, are these sort of scenes from Gore’s personal life and scenes of him now sort of, you know, shlepping his own suitcase through security in airports and looking sort of like Willie Loman in Death of a Salesman. I guess that’s supposed to give it kind of a poignance, that this guy is on his last legs and is saving the world. There’s one other interesting, odd thing about it. Every single time they can, they show the logo of Apple computer—he’s got an Apple laptop throughout the movie—and then you find out later, reading, that he’s on the board of Apple. So that’s the sort of commercial aspect of it.

Let’s translate. According to Rich, An Inconvenient Truth is on “the high end” of the instructional films we had to watch about avoiding VD. And his condescension toward Gore-as-Loman was quite undisguised—quite apparent. At this point, Imus offered a thought; Rich makes An Inconvenient Truth “sound like a campaign film,” he said. And as Rich replied to the I-fellow’s comment, you just had to throw your hands up and laugh. By any normal standard of judgment, what followed went well beyond “dumb:”

more...

[lyonn]

1. Let the games begin!

So, Gore is on Apple's board? Well, if anyone was on the board of any company hopefully they respected the company, why would they buy a Dell? What this tells me is that the powers that be are afraid of Gore. Hillary isn't getting put down like Gore. What does that tell you. All they do is ask about Hillary's marriage, her Iraq vote, soft stuff. This could be a good sign that Gore might seriously consider running. Having been through the gauntlet before there shouldn't be too many surprises for him.

[wtmusic]

2. as much as I love Al Gore

IMO Rich is right on the money. And I don't see it as the hit piece a lot of people here do.

[lyonn]

3. Haven't seen the movie but, what's the big deal

The movie has Rich talking about it and that says something.

[Cha]

4. Yeah, I was attacking

Frank Rich last week concerning his column on Gore and what he said about his part in "An Inconvenient Truth"..Good gawd, it could have been written by david the waterboy brooks!