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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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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