Al Gore may have ran a terrible campaign, but he still easily won.

Had it not been for the press and the incredibly shameful USSC he would be our President today, as he rightfully should be.

Nobody would be talking about all the problems in his campaign, either. Al Gore got the worst screwing of any politican in US history, and it causes me severe pain to this day to remember the 2000 election.

I miss Al Gore every day. Al Gore won, and does not in any sense deserve the scorn and contempt slung his way by members of his own party to this very day. It is outrageous that Al did not get the necessary support to run in 2004. Maybe if more Democrats realized how impossible it was to deal with the SCLM in that race they'd stop dissing him.

This is one of the reasons that alternative sources & outlooks are increasingly important. The Dems absolutely made the right decision giving media accreditation to bloggers for the convention.

As the web becomes more pervasive, this will become even more important.

On the SCLM - did you see today's article on ? Nothing like the subtle smear.

Drat! Futzed the tags! The article is from the NYT coverage of the Kerry/Edwards fundraiser in NYT last night.

The great majority of Americans do NOT read. They watch TV and are constantly lied to by the TV media. In that sense, we do not have a free press, we do not have an informed public, and therefore, we do not have a democracy.

The only option is to relentlessly expose the tactics and lies present in the current big media. This may not change the minds of existing sheep but it certainly prevents the boundless creation of more sheep. Blogs are a good back drop to get conversations going. However Dems have been caught way short on their cross media message machine distribution abilities. They do not have a foothold in radio or TV. Both TV and radio are needed. Air America and AL Gore's projects are a start.

The long term strategy however should be based around bringing about a truly interactive media stream that is not consolidatable. The current meme on "the fracturing of news sources" is really about the erosion of the power and reach of the traditional media monopolies.

If one could start an internet TV or Radio station at the cost advantages of Web Log publishing vs Starting a Metro newspaper, and all consumers were able to select these sataions over internet enabled radio, TV, and cable boxes then there would be no problems.

If Kerry and Edwards make this a key plank of their administration, creating and seeding such a market, then they will guarantee the dem's and the nation's long term health. Even the dinsoaurs of media are interested in utilizing the new tech and will be less resistant to change now that they have had 4 years to think about it.

The problem with existing media is that unlike the blog world where you can switch to another topic or thread to drown troll noise, in the one way world of TV and radio, troll rantings gain much more import than the would normally have in a bi-directional world. Especially when one or more cross media networks is devoted to "fair and balanced" trolling 24 hours a day.

It's like watching a team that's getting jobbed by the refs. The announcers are calling them "tentative" or "slow to react" but in reality they are just confused and put out of their game by the refs. Kerry is doing what the best players do in this situation-ride out the bad calls, don't let the refs take you out of your mental game, and try to squeek out a win at the end of the game.

The problem isn't so much that the media is biased - the problem is that the media is feeble and easily manipulated. A successful campaign is able to manipulate the media into presenting the candidate's message for them. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are good at manipulating the media to their advantage. We need to have a candidate and a campaign that can do that. We'll find out in the fall if Kerry / Edwards can do it.

CAPol Junkie....sorry but it *is* that the media is biased. Do you think Al Gore really invented the internet? of course not, but the media ran it daily, knowing full well it was b.s. Do you think the CIA really tricked Bush into the war in Iraq?of course not.....but go turn on your tv and see what the media is saying now. Do you think that anyone who voted for Gore will decide to vote for Bush this time? Of course not, but don't be surprised to see a Fox poll telling you just that.

Atitudes like CA Pol Junkie's are widespread on the left, and righties are as sure as anything that CNN runs to the left of Joseph Stalin. The atitude on the right is understandable. It reinforces their preconcieved notions about the world. The atitude on the left is harder to understand. How could anybody watch the Clinton impeachment debacle and then see the press completely ignore the Plame affair for three whole months and not think that the scandal sheets are heavily Repug-biased.

The "liberal media" propaganda line cuts very deeply across the political spectrum.

Minor niggle: "excorticated"?? Did you, perhaps, mean "excoriated"?

I have to send a shout-out to Paradox! Thank you. You've put my feelings into words in a way I frequently struggle. When I voice my respect of Gore to people, I have to keep in mind that nobody I'm speaking with has heard the name Bob Somerby, the single best source of the "Goreing".

I find what the media did to Gore (independent of how he ran his campaign) sad. If there's someone in American politics who's name was slandered like Gore, I've yet to hear about it.

Fuckin SCLM!

I have to send a shout-out to Paradox! Thank you. You've put my feelings into words in a way I frequently struggle. When I voice my respect of Gore to people, I have to keep in mind that nobody I'm speaking with has heard the name Bob Somerby, the single best source of the "Goreing".

I find what the media did to Gore (independent of how he ran his campaign) sad. If there's someone in American politics who's name was slandered like Gore, I've yet to hear about it.

Fuckin SCLM!

You're trying to justify the spinelessness of at least some Democrats, and it can't be justified. Reporters often claim that they think they are doing a good job if they are being screamed at equally by both sides. The Republicans do far more screaming at the press for alleged bias than the Dems do. The result is that the debate gets shifted to the right.

The press can be worked successfully by the Dems, they just have to be willing to do it. They need to start by making a bigger issue of the biased coverage they are getting, every single time, so that the press avoids pissing them (and us) off.

If, every time some pundit repeated some overused canard, their voicemail boxes filled with complaints, they'd stop. This is the strategy that Gingrich taught the Republicans.

Thank you, cee.