Media ♥ Al Gore

Media ♥ Al Gore
Network lovefest surrounds Gores global warming movie and book, as he gets reporters to dance to his tune.

By Dan Gainor and Amy Menefee
Business & Media Institute
May 24, 2006

     John Lennon once wrote that All you need is love. If thats the case, former presidential candidate Al Gore is a happy man. He is in the middle of a media lovefest celebrating his work, his career even his efforts as actor, author, dancer and comedian.

     The former vice president has both a movie and a book about global warming debuting today under the title An Inconvenient Truth. He has gone from media darling to the summers most unlikely movie star, as NBCs Katie Couric called him in a May 24 interview. Gore, who Couric also called funny, vulnerable, disarming, self effacing, isnt just a movie star, hes a media star. He has appeared or been mentioned on 23 news and news-related shows in just the last month (April 23-May 23) on ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN.

     Only 10 of those appearances were linked to Gores strident lecture on global warming. The other 13 fed on the new-found cult of celebrity that included everything from a discussion of another Gore presidential run (which he has repeatedly denied) to video clips of him used in relation to American Idol voting.