A Trip Down Memory Lane: Campaign 2000 and Al Gore’s Earth Tones

Dartmouth College

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Just to get this straight up front, I’ve told Bob Somerby that I think he obsesses too much about the Al Gore campaign in 2000. So he knows how I feel. And in fairness, he does it way less than he used to.

But I admit that sometimes it’s useful to remind everyone of what things were like back then. Today Somerby does that, and it’s worth reading. It’s especially worth reading if you’re under, say, age 30 and don’t have any personal memories of that era. You can read it by clicking here.¹

I’m not even sure what lesson to draw from this. That the national political press is actually better today than it used to be? That it’s been unhinged for a long time? That stuff like this is why Donald Trump became president 16 years later? Decide for yourself.

¹And this is just a tiny smidgen of the whole story. There’s nothing in this particular post about Love Canal or inventing the internet or Love Story or any of that. But you can always google for more if you want.

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GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

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