CBS Champions the New 'Al Gore 2.0,' Now Known as 'The Goreacle' --5/29/2007

1. CBS Champions the New 'Al Gore 2.0,' Now Known as 'The Goreacle'
"He was once called 'Mr. Stiff.' Now he's known as 'The Goreacle,' the new Al Gore," CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric touted in plugging an upcoming Friday night story. With "Gore 2.0" on screen, Couric set up the subsequent tribute by asserting that "no one's getting more attention than the latest edition of Al Gore. Sharyn Alfonsi reports on Gore 2.0." Attention from the media, certainly. Alfonsi trumpeted how "Al Gore seems to have gone from awkward to almost slick," proposing that "all it took was eight years, some melting polar ice caps and an Oscar win for his documentary." Interspersed with clips of Gore on various news and entertainment shows, Alfonsi hailed how "he spread the word about global warming, and now is changing the political climate. In some polls, Gore is third for the Democratic nomination, and he's not even a candidate. And he's come out with another book, The Assault on Reason." In his media tour for it, he's "knocking the media with one arm and the Bush administration with the other." AUDIO&VIDEO [1] [1]

2. Stephanopoulos: Vote Against Troops May Look 'Prescient'
Former Clinton spinner George Stephanopoulos, now ABC's "chief Washington correspondent," argued on Friday's Good Morning America that Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's votes Thursday night against funding U.S. troops was a smart move to "keep them in the game," and speculated that by next year the vote could look "prescient" because "either American troops will be on their way home, or the war will be so unpopular, that everyone else will be coming along to their position."

3. ABC Distressed by 'Harmful Museum Showing Bible Story of Creation
While Rosie O'Donnell uses ABC's own airwaves to spout nonsense about 9/11 conspiracies and Rudy Giuliani supposedly shipping the World Trade Center off to China (see #4 below), ABC News is troubled that the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, tells visitors the Biblical story of God's creation. "Critics say it is harmful to schoolchildren," co-host Robin Roberts teased at the top of Friday's Good Morning America. "Mainstream scientists worry that because this museum is so sophisticated it will be more effective at giving children a distorted view of science," ABC reporter Dan Harris argued. Back in 1999, a New York City art museum showcased an exhibit featuring a portrait of the Virgin Mary surrounded by elephant dung and cutouts from pornographic magazines. But then the media only saw a threat to free speech if the artist or museum were deprived of public funds. The New York Times then argued: "One man's blasphemy is another man's faith."

4. Rosie O'Donnell Out; Read and Watch Her Most Obnoxious Outbursts
ABC announced Friday afternoon that loud-mouthed liberal Rosie O'Donnell was quitting as co-host of The View effective immediately, rather than in mid-June as previously announced. The MRC's Rich Noyes has collected many examples of Rosie O'Donnell's most outrageous outbursts, from her 1999 on-air confrontation with actor and 2nd Amendment supporter Tom Selleck to her wacky claims of a 9/11 conspiracy followed by her insinuation last week that American soldiers are terrorists: "655,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. Who are the terrorists?" That last comment was the spark that provoked an on-air shouting match on Wednesday between O'Donnell and co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

CBS Champions the New 'Al Gore 2.0,'
Now Known as 'The Goreacle'

This is not the first time this year that CBS has gushed over Gore. Less than two weeks ago, the Mother's Day edition of the CBS Evening News devoted a story to DraftGore.org (Mark Finkelstein's item). Bill Whitaker touted him as "a star of an Oscar-winning documentary on global warming" who is "so hot he's cheered on one of the coolest shows on TV," Comedy Central's The Daily Show hosted by left-winger Jon Stewart.

When he testified before House and Senate committees back in March, Couric celebrated "a lot of excitement on Capitol Hill. A movie star showed up to testify before Congress -- a movie star named Al Gore." See: www.mrc.org [5]

On The Early Show in February, Harry Smith asked Richard Branson: "Is Al Gore a prophet?" See: www.mrc.org [6]

[This item was posted Friday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [7] ]

The CBSNews.com posting of the video of Alfonsi's story also fawns over Gore, with the caption touting how "he points out the mistakes America has made while we watch Britney and K Fed." The full caption, was on the CBS Evening News page: www.cbsnews.com [8]

As well as the pop-up browser page featuring the latest CBS News videos: "Gore's 360-Degree Turnaround: Al Gore's efforts to spread the word on global warming are changing the political climate. He points out the mistakes America has made while we watch Britney and K Fed. Sharyn Alfonsi reports." See: www.cbsnews.com [9]

The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide this transcript of the May 25 CBS Evening News story:

KATIE COURIC: This is already one unusual presidential campaign. For one thing, it is the longest one ever. The seasons will have changed seven times before it's over. It's also a campaign in which the non-candidates are drawing as much attention as those who have declared. And no one's getting more attention than the latest edition of Al Gore. Sharyn Alfonsi reports on Gore 2.0.

SHARYN ALFONSI: Remember this Al Gore?
AL GORE CLIP #1, DURING 2000 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: I will keep Social Security in a lock box.
GORE CLIP #2: It should stay in a lock box.
ALFONSI: The guy who loved talking about putting Social Security in a lock box so much, some thought he might have hid his personality in there.
GORE: -the power to issue bonds interest-free.
ALFONSI: All of a sudden, Al Gore seems to have gone from awkward to almost slick.
DAVID LETTERMAN TO GORE ON THURSDAY'S LATE SHOW: Would it have killed you to wear a tie?
ALFONSI: All it took was eight years, some melting polar ice caps and an Oscar win for his documentary.
GORE ON THE MAY 24 LATE SHOW: A global warming slide show presented by Al Gore. What doesn't say blockbuster about that?
ALFONSI: He spread the word about global warming, and now is changing the political climate. In some polls, Gore is third for the Democratic nomination, and he's not even a candidate. And he's come out with another book: The Assault on Reason.
GORE ON ABC's GOOD MORNING AMERICA: You know, Britney and K. Fed and Anna Nicole Smith and all this stuff. Meanwhile, very quietly, our country's been making some very serious mistakes.
ALFONSI: Knocking the media with one arm and the Bush administration with the other.
GORE ON THE DAILY SHOW: -that actually Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with the attack of 9/11.
JON STEWART: You keep coming back to this. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11?
GORE: It's shocking, isn't it?
ALFONSI: The guy who was once the punch line now seems to be in on the joke. He's just not in the race, at least not yet. Sharyn Alfonsi, CBS News, New York.

Fun fact: Sharyn Alfonsi is the younger sister of the guy who, in the mid-1990s, worked for the Media Research Center handling our IT issues and running our then-nascent Web site. Apparently, his influence didn't rub off on her. Alfonsi's bio: www.cbsnews.com [10]

Stephanopoulos: Vote Against Troops May
Look 'Prescient'

Former Clinton spinner George Stephanopoulos, now ABC's "chief Washington correspondent," argued on Friday's Good Morning America that Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's votes Thursday night against funding U.S. troops was a smart move to "keep them in the game," and speculated that by next year the vote could look "prescient" because "either American troops will be on their way home, or the war will be so unpopular, that everyone else will be coming along to their position."

As Stephanopoulos repeated the logic of the Democratic campaign operatives, nowhere in his equation did he suggest the possibility that either the situation in Iraq may be significantly improved -- making the Democrats urge to surrender now seem foolish -- or that if the Democrats succeed in forcing American troops off the battlefield, they would be blamed if the bloodshed becomes far worse.

In the segment, which aired at about 7:06am EDT, Stephanopoulos did admit that the candidates were being led by far-left grassroots efforts like MoveOn.org: "They are under tremendous pressure from grassroots activists in the Democratic party, from MoveOn.org....and calculated that they could not afford to defy these activists." Such profiles in courage.

[This item, by Rich Noyes, was posted Friday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [11] ]

Here's a transcript of the May 25 exchange:

Robin Roberts: "Also there in D.C. is chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos, also the host of This Week. Good morning, George, and you heard about-"
George Stephanopoulos: "Good morning, Robin."
Roberts: "Good to see you. You know about Senators Obama and Clinton voting against the bill, so how will this affect their presidential campaigns?"
George Stephanopoulos: "Robin, I think they are both calculating that this vote will keep them in the game, even though both Senator Obama and Senator Clinton have voted for the funding in the past, they are under tremendous pressure from grassroots activists in the Democratic party, from MoveOn.org, from those voters who work hardest in the primary, to vote against this bill. They were looking at each other, looking at John Edwards, who's had already said he would vote against the funding, and calculated that they could not afford to defy these activists in these primary states."
Roberts: "When you look at a brand new poll that is out today in the New York Times it says, George, that 69% say Congress should fund the war if the Iraq government meets benchmarks. So how much of a defining moment will this vote become?"
Stephanopoulos: "This could end up being a problem for either candidate if they got the nomination in the general '€" if they got the nomination, they could be in the general election '€" this could come into play, but I think they're both calculating that by the time they get to that point that, either American troops will be on their way home, or the war will be so unpopular, that everyone else will be coming along to their position. They're calculating that this vote will look prescient, not unprincipled."
Roberts: "No doubt, of course, the Iraq war will go a long way in the presidential election and the campaigning. Yesterday in the White House with the President there in the Rose Garden, in the press conference, he said that if the Iraqi government, if the government asked the U.S. to leave Iraq, that we will. How realistic is that?"
Stephanopoulos: "Well, you know, just about a week ago a majority in the Iraqi parliament signed a petition that said U.S. forces should leave. They didn't put it to a vote, yet, but they did sign that petition, so it, there is a possibility that this will happen, and I think if the pres '€" if that did happen, the President would have no choice but to call on U.S. troops to withdraw, and this is a position shared not only by Democrats in the Congress, but the top Republicans in the Congress as well. What the President is hoping is that he can prevent that type of vote, at least in the short term."

ABC Distressed by 'Harmful Museum Showing
Bible Story of Creation

While Rosie O'Donnell uses ABC's own airwaves to spout nonsense about 9/11 conspiracies and Rudy Giuliani supposedly shipping the World Trade Center off to China (see #4 below), ABC News is troubled that the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, tells visitors the Biblical story of God's creation.

"Critics say it is harmful to schoolchildren," co-host Robin Roberts teased at the top of Friday's Good Morning America. "Mainstream scientists worry that because this museum is so sophisticated it will be more effective at giving children a distorted view of science," ABC reporter Dan Harris argued.

Back in 1999, a New York City art museum showcased an exhibit featuring a portrait of the Virgin Mary surrounded by elephant dung and cutouts from pornographic magazines. But then the media only saw a threat to free speech if the artist or museum were deprived of public funds. The New York Times then argued: "One man's blasphemy is another man's faith." See: www.mrc.org [12]

Now, the media are fretting about the menace of a museum illustrating the Bible story of creation.

[This item, by Rich Noyes, was posted Friday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [13] ]

Undoubtedly, ABC pounced on the museum story today because it was featured in the Arts section of the New York Times yesterday. Reviewer Edward Rothstein wrote of the "sheer weirdness" of the museum combining "displays of extraordinary nautilus shell fossils and biblical tableaus, celebrations of natural wonders and allusions to human sin. Evolution gets its continual comeuppance, while biblical revelations are treated as gospel." See: www.nytimes.com [14]

The Bible treated as gospel? Scandalous!

ABC did, however, report that most Americans (60% according to their own poll) say they believe that God created the world in six days. And that poll was conducted before this dangerous museum officially opens on May 28.

Here's the transcript of the May 25 story:

Robin Roberts, 7:01am EDT: "And there's a new high-tech museum opening that's, well, causing quite a stir. Critics say it is harmful to schoolchildren. Harmful? So why? Here's a hint: It depicts a world where dinosaurs had company in the form of two of the most famous Biblical characters, so that always causes a bit of controversy."

Robin Roberts, 7:16am EDT: "Now, to a question of faith. According to ABC News, an ABC News poll, 60% of Americans believe God created the world in six days. And this weekend, a new museum is opening its doors. High tech, high controversy '€" [it's a] $27 million facility that depicts a story that's a, well, a far cry from what many of us learned in science class. ABC's Dan Harris joins us with a preview of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. Good morning, Dan."

Dan Harris standing in front of an exhibit showing dinosaurs: "Robin, good morning. At most museums, they're going to teach you that dinosaurs roamed the Earth millions of years ago and died out long before humans arrived on the scene. But here at the Creation Museum, they say that God created dinosaurs and humans at the same time, roughly 6,000 years ago. It's a $27 million, high tech, sensory experience, with animatronic dinosaurs, and a movie theater with seats that shake -- all designed by the same man behind some of the attractions at Universal Studios in Florida."
Museum visitors: "Incredible. It's very cool, yeah."
Harris: "It's all aimed at convincing visitors that evolution is wrong, and that the Biblical story of life on earth, from Adam and Eve to Noah's Ark, is scientifically verifiable."
Harris walking through museum exhibit with executive: "You've got Adam living with a bunch of animals, including, right here, a dinosaur."
Ken Ham, President of Answers in Genesis: "Including dinosaurs, yes, because all land animals were made on Day Six."
Harris to Ham: "But again, scientists, a lot of scientist-"
Ham: "Secular scientists."
Harris: "Secular scientists would say, that's just not true."
Ham: "Yeah, they can say that, but what's their scientific proof?"
Young boy at museum: "I believe that God created them on the sixth day, on the same day."
Harris: "Mainstream scientists worry that because this museum is so sophisticated it will be more effective at giving children a distorted view of science."
Eugenie Scott, PhD, Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education: "They'll show up in classrooms and say, 'Gee, Mrs. Brown, I went to this very spiffy museum last summer and they say that everything you're teaching me is a lie.'"
Ham: "And I say, great, amen. That's what this place is all about. It's meant to challenge people."
Exhibit movie showing a man dressed as angel talking to audience: "This folks, one of the great tragedies of your time.
Harris: "The stakes are high. The museum argues that evolution jeopardizes people's belief in the Bible, and leads to social ills like pornography and abortion."
Jason Lisle, PhD, Answers in Genesis: "Without an evolutionary worldview, why should you have things like absolute morality? Why would it be wrong to kill someone? I'm not saying that evolutionist aren't moral, I'm saying they have no logical reason to be moral."
Harris: "The people here at the museum say they have two primary audiences. Christians who need scientific evidence to bolster and defend their faith, and non-Christians who need to be saved. Diane."
Diane Sawyer: "Alright, thanks to you, Dan."

Rosie O'Donnell Out; Read and Watch Her
Most Obnoxious Outbursts

ABC announced Friday afternoon that loud-mouthed liberal Rosie O'Donnell was quitting as co-host of The View effective immediately, rather than in mid-June as previously announced. The MRC's Rich Noyes has collected many examples of Rosie O'Donnell's most outrageous outbursts, from her 1999 on-air confrontation with actor and 2nd Amendment supporter Tom Selleck to her wacky claims of a 9/11 conspiracy followed by her insinuation last week that American soldiers are terrorists: "655,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. Who are the terrorists?" That last comment was the spark that provoked an on-air shouting match on Wednesday between O'Donnell and co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

For the MRC's compilation of quotes, many with video clips, "The Full Rosie: Daytime Host's Long Record of Mean-Spirited Left-Wing Ravings," go to: www.mrc.org [15]

Thursday's CyberAlert recounted the heated exchange on the May 23 The View:

For much more, and entertaining video: www.mediaresearch.org [19]

Tuesday's CyberAlert reported O'Donnell's original allegation:

For the full rundown: www.mrc.org [23]

For the AP's Friday afternoon dispatch, "Rosie won't be back on 'The View,'" go to: news.yahoo.com [24]

For the ABCNews.com posting, "O'Donnell Will Not Be Back on 'The View,'" go to: abcnews.go.com [25]

-- Brent Baker