THE WAY THEY WEREN’T, CONTINUED: Have we mentioned the fact that major pundits won’t tell you the truth about their own cohort? Clarence Page also did some reinventing on last Sunday’s Chris Matthews Show. Page was discussing a recent remark by Dick Cheney. And then, he thought back to Campaign 2000. As usual, memory failed:

PAGE (9/12/04): It’s a lot like—
MATTHEWS: So you're saying [Cheney] tried to take a bad shot at them. Yeah?

PAGE: Well, it's a lot like Al Gore inventing the Internet. He never actually said that, but the word went out through, you know, conservative talk radio, etc., saying he did. And then the late-night comedians picked up on it, and the same thing now—

MATTHEWS: OK.

PAGE: —is happening with the Cheney comment.

Page’s account is utterly ludicrous. Al Gore said he invented the Internet? The clownish claim wasn’t the work of “conservative talk radio” or “late-night comedians.” As the record makes perfectly clear, this tale was started by the RNC, and was immediately adopted by the mainstream press corps, which peddled it around for two years (links below).

No, Gore never said he “invented the Internet.” But how quickly was the pleasing phrase being used by mainstream journalists? Gore made his actual comment on March 9, 1999. The RNC lodged its first complaints two days later, on March 11. And how quickly did the mainstream press corps swing into action, embellishing wildly? USA Today used the pleasing, invented phrase on March 15 (editorial headline: “Inventing the Internet”). That same day, Al Kamen used the phrase in his Washington Post column (he quoted a joke by a GOP spokesman). On March 16, Hardball’s Chris Matthews mocked Gore for having said he “invented the Internet.” On March 17, Judy Woodruff, hosting Inside Politics, chided Gore as “inventor of the Internet.” The embellished phrase reached the Los Angeles Times on March 18; the Boston Globe on March 20; the Associated Press on March 22. With blinding speed, the corps had invented a thrilling new story: Al Gore said he invented the Internet! And no, it wasn’t “conservative talk radio” or “late-night comedians” who spread this destructive tale around. It was Page’s colleagues in the mainstream press—the very people who like to pretend that it was really Rush Limbaugh who did it.

Remember: Mainstream pundits are never truthful about the conduct of their own cohort. And Campaign 2000 is a special case. The mainstream press doesn’t want you to know what really happened in that election. And so, their memory begins to play tricks when they describe the Bush-Gore campaign. To hear them tell it, they reported doggedly about George Bush—and Rush Limbaugh told you those tales about Gore. No American professional sector is more dishonest about its own conduct. Always keep that point in mind when you hear them describe their great work.

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