Avedon Carol, who is an expert commentator on politics and slinky underwear, posts the following in response to an earlier post of mine…
What Al Gore said was that he'd read in a newspaper article that Eric Segal had based the lead characters in Love Story on Tipper and Al. That is, in fact, what the newspaper article said. However, Segal said that the article was only partly correct, and that the character Oliver in LS was based on Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones, his pals from college. But journalists and talk show hosts made fun of him for "pretending" Oliver was based on him when, in fact, Oliver was based on him.
Yeah, I knew that but apparently didn't make that clear. Gore said nothing that was inaccurate but somehow, his foes managed to spread all sorts of misquotes, including the spurious claim that Segal had denounced Gore. No matter how many times and ways that one was debunked, the Sean Hannitys of the world kept insisting it was so. I find it amazing that Gore could get characterized by something that was so obviously a bum rap — and even if true, pretty trivial. But it's okay if the President of the United States says eighteen untrue words in the State of the Union address that help to lead us towards war.
One thing I find interesting is that in politics lately, there seems to be no worse charge you can make against an opponent than that he or she is a liar. Being utterly incompetent or outright crooked do not seem to be anywhere near as bad as being caught uttering some statement, however inconsequential, that can perhaps be disproven. A lot of the statements that G.W. Bush and his crew made in support of the Iraq invasion are now being denounced as lies when I suspect the more correct charge would be that someone simply looked at or ignored the evidence and was simply wrong, often dead wrong. That is apparently now insufficient reason to kick someone out of public office. We now have to sell the notion that they knew when they said it that it was wrong and consciously decided to fib.
In any case, I thought Gore was wronged in things like that and the "Love Canal" misquote. You almost expect that of the folks running against him (though you shouldn't) but you don't expect the press corps to go along with the misrepresentation. I'd like to think no one — Democrat or Republican — will get away with that kind of thing again. But they probably will.