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Wednesday 26 March 2008, 5:12 PM
Al "I invented the Internet" Gore bars press from speech
Al Gore might be greener than green but news that he has banned press from attending his keynote speech at this year’s RSA Conference, a big US IT show, raises questions over whether he’s whiter than white.
Wired.com and our colleagues at CNET News.com
are reporting that journalists won’t be allowed in to hear the Gore-meister hold forth and “"Video recordings, broadcasts and photography are also prohibited.".
Actually rather than having anything to hide, Gore is probably just trying to make sure that no one else reproduces his speech in any format – the more he is able to protect his live performances, the more he’s probably able to charge the likes of RSA for his appearances. After all, An Inconvenient Truth, the movie that put him front and centre again, was little more than a filmed lecture so it’s not surprising that he wants to retain “artistic control” of his output.
Then again, he might actually be paranoid that some journo in the audience is going to hurl some hard questions his way about how much he really walks the green walk.
Oh and if you are wondering what Al “hessian underwear” Gore is doing at an IT security conference anyway, it’s because he apparently created the internet.
PreviousComments on this post
That's an old chestnut and a misinterpretation. As Vint Cerf said --
"[A]s the two people who designed the basic architecture and the core protocols that make the Internet work, we would like to acknowledge VP Gore's contributions as a Congressman, Senator and as Vice President. No other elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time. Last year the Vice President made a straightforward statement on his role. He said: "During my service in the United States Congress I took the initiative in creating the Internet." We don't think, as some people have argued, that Gore intended to claim he "invented" the Internet. Moreover, there is no question in our minds that while serving as Senator, Gore's initiatives had a significant and beneficial effect on the still-evolving Internet. The fact of the matter is that Gore was talking about and promoting the Internet long before most people were listening. We feel it is timely to offer our perspective"
...and there's more on this in that Wikipedia thing.
Thanks for that Rupert - I was of course merely being cheeky with that link through to Al "friend of furry creatures everywhere" Gore's comments and was passing no judgement on whether his quote was taken out of context or not.
It is unfair for him to have to suffer years of abuse for an overblown bit of phrasing but "I took the initiative in creating the Internet" is still a pretty heavy-duty bit of tongue slippage. I wonder why so many people have got it in for him...
Could it be that Al is simply looking out for the environment once again? you see, all that press equipment (cameras, lighting, satelite vans), they use up a lot of energy whilst basically filming the same event. Al couldn't politely ask them to stay home, so he banned them for the sake of the environment!
Please change the title as he never said that, and it really annoys me when people misquote him.
