A terribly misreported diary is climbing the Recommended List at Daily Kos. The erroneous title:
Gore will not run – breaking news in UK (Updated)
And the text includes the following:
Because of the importance attached to it by so many, I am reporting breaking news on Sky News in the UK at the moment.
This is that Al Gore will not be throwing his hat in the ring and has formally annouced that he will not stand as a presidential candidate.
As has often been the case, however, Gore has made an ambiguous statement, and the media have misreported it. The diarist now has, too.
The actual quote, from Reuters:
“I don’t have plans to be a candidate again so I don’t really see it in that context at all,” Gore said when asked in an interview with Norway’s NRK public television aired on Wednesday about how the award would affect his political future.
In other words, it’s essentially the same thing he’s been saying all year: he has no plans to run. That doesn’t mean he won’t eventually have such plans.
Gore knows what he’s doing, and he’s deliberately leaving the door open, a crack. If he wanted to definitively rule out a run, he’d say something to the effect of: I am not running for president, and I will not run for president. It’s also absurd to think he would first make such a definitive statement to a Norwegian reporter.
In other words, this is nothing new. It’s not breaking, and it’s not Gore ruling out a run. It’s being badly reported, in Europe, and it’s being badly reported by a diarist on Daily Kos. Don’t buy it.
I will also say this: don’t buy all the diaries and essays suggesting Gore is running. We don’t know. We won’t know until he says something definitive. He hasn’t.
13 comments
Skip to comment form
Spot on Turkana. Nothing new. This is Mr. Gore’s standard answer to the perpetually asked question.
The whole body of traditional media wants to get the Gore scoop now that he’s won the Nobel Peace Prize. Every agency or corporation wants to get the lede saying Gore will run (or not run).
Combine this with America’s corporate media wanting the Democratic nominee to be between Sen. Clinton, anything and everything they write is framed with her inevitableness. The sooner they get rid of Gore, the better their narrative of destiny sounds.
Gore will not announce his candidacy or none candidacy in Norway or any other country other than the United States of America. Gore is a smart man and a foreign-soil announcement is just pure idiocy.
Watch though, if Gore does announce his candidacy, some in the media will paint this as a flip-flip. Their scripts have already been written. This non-story just demonstrates, once again, what Gore is up against if he should be compelled to run in 2008.
One more thing… the freaking media outfit that “broke” this story is none other than Rupert Murdoch’s SKY News.
Give us a break already, Murdoch.
Ya know, when it first looked like Gore might run, I kinda fought down all those memories of how freakin’ wooden he was on the campaign trial in 2000, and got myself all excited.
Now, he may end up jumping in, but its worth remembering that it sure isn’t gonna be a slam dunk if he does.
I read that on DK about 3:00 am and went back to bed muttering expletives.
I was wondering why he would’ve said what was attributed to him, allowing all the “Draft Gore” people – who are working their asses off – to go on.
Fingers still crossed that he’ll jump in.
It is true there is nothing new buuuut at this point it is clear that Gore is not running.
It is October 17 for crissakes and he still has “no plans.”
Frankly, this continued talk about Gore running is pretty silly.
to Princess Leia’s line in Episode IV: “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope!”
Why tremble in anticipation? Go out there and BE Al Gore!
Reuters says he’s not running too…what a sad state of affairs, I have to admit, I’m getting kinda bummed out.
Stephen Colbert