Al Gore's speech has been one of the most badly covered events of the week. The speech provided a Rosarch test for the media enabling them to read into it whatever they wanted, regardless of what Gore actually said.
On Meet the Press, Andrea Mitchell said the Gore speech set out a growing feeling among the Democratic base for a quick withdrawal from Iraq. Atrios points out that "there is absolutely nothing in Al Gore's speech which suggests that he's calling for a quick withdrawal."
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2004_05_30_atrios_archive.html#108593295841208075
Meanwhile, Gwen Ifill told us that "Al Gore staked out the far left position" in his speech.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53524-2004Apr29.html
David Brooks said on the Lehrer News Hour that it showed that Gore is "entering his Ramsey Clark phase" and showed "how intellectually uncurious he is." This is also yet another example of the partisan projection we see so often on the right re Bush's quite obvious faults.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/political_wrap/jan-june04/sb_05-28.html
Juan Williams says Gore's speech demonstrated he is a "loose canon."
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1914630 (click Day to Day audio).
The above is only a brief sampling of media reaction to the Gore speech that I'm aware of. Please add any other examples below.
Choose your explanations:
- The media couldn't be troubled to learn what the candidate who got the most votes in the last election actually said.
- The media believes it can dump on Gore with impunity because they perceive he doesn't have power anymore.
- Dumping on Gore and his speech provides an easy way of appearing to be "fair and balanced" journalists.
- Gore's prescience on the Iraq war embarasses the media and reminds them of their own failings in the pre-war period and also what might have been if they had done their job in 2000.
- They want to kill any future political aspirations of Gore and don't even want Gore to emerge as a respected and influential senior statesman (at present, this country certainly has a dearth of them).
- They just don't like Gore because he doesn't cater to them and consistently makes them look like idiots.