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A Washington Post story "published on October 8, just four weeks before the election, raises questions of the paper's integrity and motivation. Because for months now, several reporters have been pointing out that the Washington Post's [Ceci] Connolly and the New York Times's Kathleen Seelye have seriously misreported Vice President Al Gore's so-called lies and exaggerations, not once but repeatedly. They are: Robert Parry at consortiumNews.com, Salon.com, the Washington Monthly, and TomPaine.com, Bob Somerby at DailyHowler.com, American University's Jane Hall in the October Columbia Journalism Review, the Pew Committee of Concerned Journalists, and Princeton's Sean Wilentz in the American Prospect. Even the Post's ombudswoman E.R. Shipp has written twice recently about Connolly's errors, although somewhat obliquely.
The previously misreported stories are:
That Gore claimed to have invented the Internet, when he never used that word, and is widely acknowledged as the congressman who best understood the implications of what Gore dubbed "the information superhighway," and was most responsible for obtaining the federal funding that made the development of the internet possible.
That he said he "discovered" Love Canal, when he was referring to a toxic dump site in Tennessee that a high school student brought to his attention.
That he said that he and Tipper were the models for Eric Segal's Love Story when he was merely quoting a newspaper article that said Segal used Gore, Tipper, and Tommy Lee Jones as models. Segal later said the article had gotten his quote wrong, only in that he had not mentioned Tipper.
That Gore did not grow up experiencing rural life and labor in Tennessee, (he did) but grew up in a posh Washington hotel instead, which is a largely distorted assertion. The hotel was not posh in those days, was owned by a Gore relative and the Gores were able to live cheaply there....
What has been made up here, is a false depiction of candidate Al Gore as a liar, when in reality, the major news media have grossly failed to report his words accurately, then refused to write the corrective stories that would exonerate him. Nor has the Post's media reporter Howard Kurtz mentioned the Post's errors. The Post's aggressive story on Sunday, and similar recent reporting in the Times, strongly imply that they are going to protect their editors and reporters at all costs, and that they have no intention of correcting the record - even if their own misreporting is the factor that tips the balance in the 2000 presidential election." --Tom Paine, 10/10/00
In an interview with The Washington Post (10/9/00), the superintendent of the [Sarasota school district] vouched for Gore's accuracy about an incident that his Republican rival Texas Gov. George W. Bush is using to portray Gore as playing loose with the facts. [Sarasota, Florida] School officials said today that Kailey [Ellis] was one of 36 pupils in a classroom designed for 24. They said crowding is expected to worsen because in July, Sarasota voters rejected by a 2-to-1 margin a referendum that would have increased property taxes by about $100 for every $100,000 in house value. Wilma A. Hamilton, the superintendent of the Sarasota County Public Schools, said the result has had a heavy impact on morale in schools. "The loss of our local referendum has certainly increased class size in Sarasota," Hamilton said. "Whenever class size goes up, it becomes more difficult for teachers to teach effectively and students to learn effectively. It impacts morale."
In a follow-up story on Thursday, the Herald-Tribune reported: "Kailey and several other students were forced to stand at various times during the first few weeks of school because budget cuts pushed up class sizes beyond expectations, according to interviews with students and teachers and first-hand observations by Herald-Tribune reporters. Kailey said she moved from a biology classroom where students had to sit on the floor to another that was short on desks on Aug. 31 – the ninth day of school. She stood for one 50-minute period, and the following day a classmate gave up his desk for her. As a result, though, he was left without a desk for the following week, Kailey said." The Republican father of a girl who couldn't find a desk in an overcrowded Sarasota classroom came to the defense of Vice President Gore today for his description of the incident during last week's debate. "He was using an illustration to drive home a point, and then it was picked apart," said the girl's father, Randall S. Ellis, 39, the manager of a restaurant overlooking Sarasota Bay. "He stated what was stated in the newspaper." It turns out the newspaper was right, the principal was wrong (see below), and in Sarasota Bush, not Gore, has become the candidate whose credibility is now open to question. --Politex, 10/10/00
Washington Post ran a story recently about possible Bush-bias at the Moonie-owned Washington Times. On the same day the Post wrote the above, quoting from a Florida story published last week, the Washington Times ran the following in a story titled, "Fact and Fiction of Al Gore":" On school overcrowding. October 2000. Statement: Mr. Gore said in the debate a Florida school forced a female student to stand in an overcrowded classroom. "She is the 36th student in that classroom. . . . They can't squeeze another desk in for her, so she has to stand during class." Fact: Sarasota High School Principal Daniel Kennedy said that isn't true. The class was short a desk for a day. "We don't really have any students standing in class and we have more than enough desks for all of our students." The Gore campaign said the candidate based his story on a news account." Further Facts Ignored by the Washington Times: As we know from the above Post story, the principal's statement was refuted last week by students, teachers, the local paper, and Kailey's father, who is a Republican. Why wasn't the Washington Times aware of the facts? Should the Washington Times be trusted to provide the full facts on other Al Gore supposed fictions? --Politex, 10/10/00
The point about schools Al Gore was making in his debate with Bush was not about desks, but about learning. Here's what he said: "We've got to reduce the class size so that the student who walks in has more one-on-one time with the teacher. Gore went on to use Kailey Ellis's situation as reported by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (9/9/00) as an example of a student whose classroom is too crowded for optimum learning. Here is what he said: ""Her science class was supposed to be for 24 students. She is the 36th student in that classroom. . . . They can't squeeze another desk in for her, so she has to stand during class."
Here is what the principal of the High School said, as reported in USN (10/16/00): "Wrong, says Sarasota High Principal Dan Kennedy; she was deskless only for the first day of that class. 'I'm a little miffed that someone on Mr. Gore's staff didn't check the information,' he says, noting that class sizes have increased but that everyone has a desk." Mr. Kennedy did not address the point of Al Gore's anecdote, that kids are shortchanged in overcrowded classrooms. Now that Kailey has a desk, has her learning problem, which was the point of Gore's anecdote, been solved?
Not according to Kailey's teacher, as reported in that SHT story, ""It's bad enough for me teaching honors kids," said Black, the Sarasota High biology teacher whose classes are teeming. "I can't imagine what it's like for teachers who have 40 kids in every class who are struggling." Though some classes took less of a hit, all teachers will have to forgo lessons, experiments and one-on-one time with their students that they considered crucial in the past. Because they gained eight to 10 students each class, chemistry teachers at Sarasota High are giving up some experiments they deem too dangerous with a large number of students. The school's science chairman, Jim Harshman, described one canceled experiment that involves dropping copper wire into concentrated nitric acid as a "classic example in every textbook." "It really has become a question of safety," Harshman said. "It's important that a teacher can keep track of what's going on in the classroom." In his first experiment of the year, Black's able to track his students' progress only with the help of a teaching intern from Florida State University. His class is divided into teams of three or four students, and each group huddles around a lab table built for two. "It's irritating," said 15-year-old Royce Zynda, a sophomore in honors biology. "You get whacked at every turn." The cramped quarters made it impossible for any group to finish the experiment before the bell, even though last year's students easily finished the assignment within the 50 minutes they had. "What happens is, what normally takes one class period will take two to three," Black said. "So over the course of the year, you won't cover as much as you should -- it's just not practical."
The question then, is who is right, Gore, who wants the federal government to do something about the lack of classroom space by providing specific funding for it, or Bush, who has not included specific funding for more classroom space in his education plan, but claims Gore can't be trusted because Kailey was without a desk for only a day? --Politex, 10/9/00
(The SHT story addresses other points about schools and learning that Gore made during the debate.
"Usually reporters favor whomever they are covering, but I think the people on this race believe that Gore's going to win," says a witness to the straw poll [that took place on Friday 10/6 while the Bush entourage was flying from Marion, Ill. to Tampa, Florida]. According to a reporter who was on the plane, a straw poll...question was not who should win, but who would win -- and 26 reporters suggested Gore will be the last man standing on Nov. 7, while just 5 voted for a Bush victory. (Another reporter confirmed that the poll had occurred, but declined to go into specifics.)...
According to the reporter, writers from such publications as the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune and three Texas papers -- the Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle and the Austin American Statesman -- all voted. The source did not know whether the reporters from the Washington Post or the New York Times participated. The reporter, who described the events only after being promised anonymity, thought the vote was extraordinary. "You just don't see that kind of stuff happening, (but) even then, it's surprising that Gore won by so much. Usually reporters favor whomever they are covering, but I think the people on this race believe that Gore's going to win. He's a fighter and just will not give up." --Inside, 10/7/00
APPLETON, Wis., Oct. 5 — Mr. Bush was asked by a woman what she could tell a Democratic friend who did not like Vice President Al Gore but feared upsetting the economy through a change in administrations. The governor tried several times for an answer. "Tell her to keep an open mind," he said first. "No. Tell her governments don't create wealth," he said to some applause from an audience at the McKinley Elementary School here. "You know, as I said, the economy's done more for this administration than the administration's done for the economy. I really believe that." He took another tack, saying, "Here's what I'd tell her — fellow's got a pretty good record and he's done in office what he said he would." He started to argue that the administration must be changed in order to bail out Social Security and Medicare, then said, "I'm groping for the right answer, you can tell." --Alison Mitchell, NYT, 10/6/00
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