The ink was barely dry on the Nobel Peace Prize proclamation when the American media went into attack mode.
"This will not stand," they seemed to collectively insist. "We thought we had successfully destroyed 'Al Bore, The Ozone Man.' How dare he create a new life and legacy for himself! How dare he think he can inject himself once again into our planned narrative! How dare he actually prove that he would have been the worthiest president these past eight years!
"Besides, he needs to lose a little weight, don't you think, and will he please stop insisting he invented the Internet…la la la…" [hands placed over ears].
Every story on TV, radio or in print about Al Gore's winning this most prestigious prize was accompanied by the disclaimer in the third or fourth sentence, "…but his work on climate change has not gone without its share of sharp criticism," which then segued to an interview with an uncredentialed "scientific expert" who offers mumbo-jumbo about how "the jury is still out on climate change."
American reporters also insisted on noting, repeatedly, that Gore was "sharing" the prize with the UN climate panel, perhaps to show that his prize wasn't worth as much as, say, the Dalai Lama's.
And, of course, Bush the Coward issued his usual classy response through spokesman Tony Fratto, who said, "We are happy for Vice-President Gore."
Knowing how the White House parses every single word of its lies, the term "Vice President" was carefully chosen to place Gore at a subservient level to the Little Boy King From Crawford.
The most often cited "expert" and current poster boy for Climate Holocaust Denial is Bjorn Lomborg. He apparently learned environmentalism from Ronald "Trees Pollute" Reagan and James "Just Use More Sunblock" Watt.
Thus, as was covered in depth in a recent New York Review of Books piece by Bill McKibben, Lomborg is a favorite on "right-wing radio and TV programs and has been summoned to offer helpful testimony by James Inhofe (R-Okla.), famous for his claim that global warming is a hoax."
Lomborg may be insane, or he may be deliberately fudging the truth. In any case, like the "scientists" who lied for the tobacco companies, he's found a cushy career niche as a Climate Holocaust Denier (Exxon and Chevron have much deeper pockets than Philip Morris).
Wherever he has appeared and been made to answer to real experts about his renegade fact-free ideas on climate change—including at Yale two years ago—Lomborg is eviscerated, reduced to sputtering and grimacing like Ann Coulter. That he is allowed equal weight as a counterbalance to Al Gore and 99.9% of the climate scientists on earth in stories about the Nobel Peace Prize tells you how debased the American media has become.
Lomborg is not worthy to tie Gore's shoes, yet he's quoted as if he shares the same stature, so that, even in his moment of greatest triumph, Gore can be demeaned.
What interests me most is not whether Gore will jump into the presidential race (though I'd be glad if he did), but how he handles the sniping ankle bites from the media. If he sighs, the sigh will be amped louder than Howard Dean's scream in Iowa. If he gets angry, he will be called "humorless." If he ignores them, he will be depicted as arrogant.
Gore should treat the media the way you'd treat recalcitrant children—with stern recitations of fact but a smile on his face. By doing this, he will seize the moral initiative and expose his attackers for the shallow little lapdogs they are.
And the White House is his…if he wants it.
