Monthly Archives: December 2001

Here are two stories from the Reuters News Service.  Compare the Gore quotes and ask yourself how they could have gotten things this far wrong…

Al Gore Says Now Restaurateur in Tennessee
Thursday, November 29 1:51 PM ET

LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) – Former Vice President Al Gore told a Nigerian audience on Thursday that he now runs a family restaurant in Tennessee.

Gore narrowly lost the 2000 U.S. presidential election to Republican George W. Bush.

"This has been a time of transition for me and it hasn't been easy," Gore told an audience at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs."

"For example, there are usually a lot of cars on the road. Now it takes a lot longer to get around, and given that I haven't driven for eight years, I'm not sure it's wise (to drive)," said Gore, who was driven in a limousine while he was vice president.

He also told the capacity audience that he had started the new family enterprise in his home state.

"We have started a family restaurant in Tennessee and we are running it ourselves. It is a low-cost restaurant," he said.  "I am also a visiting professor or VP for short."

Spokesmen in the United States were not immediately available to provide further details.

That's the first story.  Here's the second story…

CORRECTION: Al Gore Restaurateur Story Withdrawn
Friday, November 30 6:23 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Nov. 29 LAGOS, Nigeria, story headlined "Al Gore says now restaurateur in Tennessee" is wrong and is withdrawn. The story was based on an erroneous hearing of Gore's remarks.

According to a transcript provided by a representative for Gore, the former vice president said "…we stopped at a little family restaurant in Tennessee. We were eating there by ourselves. It was a low-cost restaurant called Shoney's."

There will be no substitute story.

This is a pretty good example of how much we can trust the news.  And, uh, how come it took more than 24 hours to correct this?

• Times Cries Eke! Buries Al Gore! by Gore Vidal, The Nation
• A Better Definition of Patriotism by Senator John F. Kerry
• No Lawyer to Call by Stephen Gillers, New York Times
• A Sashay to the Right, Some Smiles From The Left by Richard W. Stevenson, New York Times

The above links are to articles that the operator of this website believes contribute to the national debate. He does not necessarily agree with all or any of what they say…and you won't, either.

In 1965, my friend and frequent employer Lee Mendelson produced his first animated TV special.  Bill Melendez and his crew animated it, based on a script by Charles M. Schulz which was, in turn, based on Schulz's rather popular newspaper strip, Peanuts.  The folks at the network hated it and predicted it would bomb… but it wound up being quite popular, winning every award it could possibly win.  It catapulted Mr. Schulz's lovely little strip into a merchandising phenomenon, and launched Mendelson-Melendez on a career of producing award-winning animated specials.  Several of the songs, expertly crafted by Vince Guaraldi, have become standards.

Over the years, A Charlie Brown Christmas has been rerun more often than any other prime-time TV special.  For some folks, Christmas isn't Christmas 'til they see Good Ol' Charlie Brown bring home that ratty Christmas tree and see that weird kid doing that weird dance in the musical sequence.  Alas, over the years, the increased number of commercials in a network time slot has forced a few minutes to be trimmed from this classic animated work.

This year, the annual event switches from CBS to ABC and reverts to its original, restored glory.  A 17-minute documentary has been prepared on the creation of the special and, by putting all this together and adding in Whoopi Goldberg as host, they can put it all in an hour time slot and not have to cut anything from the original show, save for the plugs for Coca-Cola.  It airs Thursday evening, December 6 at 8 PM.  Enjoy, enjoy.