A Trip Down Memory Lane: Campaign 2000 and Al Gore’s Earth Tones

Dartmouth College

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Just to get this straight up front, I’ve told Bob Somerby that I think he obsesses too much about the Al Gore campaign in 2000. So he knows how I feel. And in fairness, he does it way less than he used to.

But I admit that sometimes it’s useful to remind everyone of what things were like back then. Today Somerby does that, and it’s worth reading. It’s especially worth reading if you’re under, say, age 30 and don’t have any personal memories of that era. You can read it by clicking here.¹

I’m not even sure what lesson to draw from this. That the national political press is actually better today than it used to be? That it’s been unhinged for a long time? That stuff like this is why Donald Trump became president 16 years later? Decide for yourself.

¹And this is just a tiny smidgen of the whole story. There’s nothing in this particular post about Love Canal or inventing the internet or Love Story or any of that. But you can always google for more if you want.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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