That Those Liberal Media

The biggest problem Al Gore would face in a 2008 run will not be the GOP. It'll be he media - again. Ezra Klein writes:

While writing my article on Gore's post-2000 activities, I tracked down some of the students in the course he created for their journalism course. The class was deeply critical of contemporary journalistic conventions -- particularly the false idol of "objectivity," namely as it translates into mindless stenography of unequal viewpoints. The students rebelled against Gore's critique, turning almost instantly hostile. Josh Bearman, who took the course, remembers that “He knew more than everyone in the room. So the class basically turned against him because he was smarter than they were, and they didn’t like that. We witnessed exactly what had happened on the campaign plane in the year prior.” And make no mistake -- we'll see it again. It's one thing for global warming to top the agenda. For Gore to put it there, however, implicitly indicts all those who mocked or sought to stymie his crusade in the past. His success is their failure, and they'll do their damndest to stop it.

The US press corps invested an incredible amount of energy to sink Gore in 2000 - without their efforts to support Bush and lambast Gore, the Bush presidency would never have happened. A return of the Gore candidacy, made more popular by Clinton-era nostalgia and his own increased charms, would be a fundamental indictment of every journalist in Washington, who believed they alone had the right to choose who should be President.

This is why Gore's efforts to get around the press - around the filter, as Bush would say - is so crucial to his resurrection.

(Edit: Changed title to be grammatically correct. Thanks, anonymous! Actually, the singular use of the word "media" is one of my pet peeves, so I feel ashamed.)