The "I invented the Internet" quote is on tape and cannot be explained
away!!! That is not to say the other's are untrue, but lets stick with the
facts...
JeffF
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of Nick Arnett
> Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2000 7:27 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Gossip and the Internet
>
>
> Over last couple of weeks, a very good friend of mine has sent me
> a couple
> of e-mails about Al Gore. One characterized him as a liar, the other was
> "35 Reasons Not to Vote for Gore." Both were full of outright
> fabrications, poorly reported true events and political opinions poorly
> disguised as facts. I thought I'd offer some thoughts about the the
> significance of this, perhaps under the theme of IAAMOAC, if I have the
> abbreviation correct.
>
> For example, there's a story that just won't die, claiming that Al Gore
> said that he and his wife were the models for Erich Segal's "Love
> Story." Yes, this is trivial, but it seems to me that the worst sort of
> gossip is that which takes the trivial and blows it up into character
> assassination. Segal was a visiting professor at Harvard when Gore was a
> student there. Segal confirms that Gore was, indeed, the model for the
> male character in "Love Story." However, Mrs. Gore wasn't the model for
> the woman in the book. But Gore never said she was -- a reporter
> jumped to
> that conclusion and misquoted Gore. Unfortunately, the reporter's bad
> journalism continues to be repeated as "evidence" that Gore is a
> liar. This and the other poorly researched allegations against Gore are
> making their way around the Internet on personal web sites and in
> e-mails. To me, this is gossip -- gossip that presents a real threat to
> our society, tearing us apart and separating us further from the truth.
>
> To invoke my favorite analogy, I think that this resembles what happened
> with religion in the Reformation. The Church believed that
> ordinary people
> were too ignorant to understand religion. Priests were necessary to
> explain everything, to be the conduit between the rest of humanity and
> God. And yet, time has showed that ordinary people are no more likely or
> unlikely than priests to follow or misuse religion.
>
> --
> Senior VP Strategic Development, Co-Founder
> Opion Inc.
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> (408) 733-7613
