Credit: Robert Vamosi / CNET Networks
First you have to wonder what global warming has to do with a computer security conference (RSA) in the first place, but then the real surprise comes when you find that Al Gore did not allow any members of the press to attend.
One blogger, Tim Wilson, with press credentials writes:
Gore, who reportedly receives $100,000 for personal appearances, apparently has a standard contract that bans the fourth estate from all of his speeches. No one seems to know why, and we can’t ask — on account of we’re out here, and he’s in there.
This lack of free press access peeved more than a few reporters:
CNET: http://www.news.com/8301-10789_3-9917347-57.html
Wired: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/al-gore-says-no.html
Information Week:
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/04/al_gores_top_se.html
Silicon Alley Insider:
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/4/why_does_al_gore_hate_the_press_
Computerworld:
http://blogs.computerworld.com/why_is_al_gore_dis_inviting_press_and_analysts_at_rsa
and many more…
But I suppose when the “debate is over” why do you need the press around? Gore’s standard speaking contract was published by The Smoking Gun, and it is apparently not just this RSA conference, but ALL such contracted appearances Gore bans the press from.
Gore’s Contract:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0717071gore1.html
Reporters and those pesky questions they ask, how inconvenient.
How long before we get these gore creeps handing out pamphletes in the streets, advertising Spencer Weart’s booking, offering an initial carbon footprint reading for free, and gore’s living on a boat with little boys?
Whine, whine, whine.
Is it your claim that this contract is unusual in some fashion? I’d like to know how. There are any number of people who speak on policy who have similar contract requirements — though, you must admit (if you’re honest), very few demand a sedan and suggest (not demand) a hybrid. Even being cranky, Gore’s looking out for the planet.
Have you done a survey of speaking contracts to see who allows press in, and who doesn’t? It’s been my experience in the last 30 years that the groups who pay $100,000 for a speech don’t want to share with the general public, and in my experience, it’s the paying groups who usually demand that clause. Putting it into a contract in advance is a pretty good sales device, it seems to me — but then, free marketry isn’t something you relish when consumers choose something other than your brand, is it.
Is it your claim that Gore doesn’t give interviews? He’s ahead of Bush and Cheney put together — and they belong to the taxpayers, or should.
What IS your complaint, anyway? Do you think he’s saying something he hasn’t said in public somewhere else? (His new power point is up on his website, if you really wanted to see it – for free.)
From a flacking view, the opponents, even the whiney ones, are in the driver’s seat on this. There’s nothing that stops any fool Al Gore hater from putting out a press release against him, or blogging that he’s being secretive.
Case in point.
You got better stuff contradicting Gore? Put in on slides and take it on the road. Risk ridicule for a couple of years before people start paying attention. Make it into a movie that doesn’t bore people to death, even though it features a surplus of charts and graphs. Win an Oscar.
Courage? Not enough to try to make the case against Gore the way Gore did.
Even being cranky, Gore’s looking out for the planet.
If his policies did not come at such terrible cost in human life I would regard him less harshly. However, his advocacy is not harmless and its baleful effects are indirectly felt already by the poorest and most helpless.
If he’s looking out for the planet, why is it a secret meeting? And why is he charging so much more than just travel expenses? He’s looking out for himself, nothing more.
Apples and oranges. Gore is supposedly trying to save US from OURSELVES. Why then can’t we hear what he expects us to do while he DOESN’T do it? Can’t he just send them a video tape? THAT would be looking out for the planet.
Yeah, he gives them to people who ask softball questions. People who will portray him in a favorable light.
We don’t know what he’s saying, that’s the whole point! Sheesh!
We do, but we don’t have oil money like he does to throw around. Not to mention all the lefties who don’t really care if he’s right, as long as he’s blaming conservatives, or anyone who doesn’t agree with them.
Your citation from CNN had a few very very interesting comments from some who were there. Here’s a sample:
“I was there too”…: reader comment from Electro_Fox
Posted on: April 12, 2008, 7:12 AM PDT
Story: Press barred from Gore’s RSA speech
“And could NOT believe some of his statements… I admit, when he stated that, as a matter of scientific fact, that the polar ice would be gone in 5 years, I was one of the MANY who gasped… He also stated that San Francisco, Seattle, the French Riviera, all coastal cities, etc would be under 10-20 feet of water after the ice melts! ?@ur momisugly%*#!”
There were other commenters who confirmed this. In fact one brave girl was apparently hauled off by Gore’s goons and turned over to the police. I would like to hear her story.
Global Warming Gravitas (UPDATED)…
I’m amazed that the very people who’ve bought into the scam that is global warming are now quick to display these kinds of cartoons and wag them in our faces: More chutzpah-ish is the notion that these same people would…
Hey Ed Darrell, are you one of those loony tunes high tech CEOs, or a crony thereof?
(Some companies now even have Chief EnvironMENTAL Officers)
Yeah, that’s evident.
Here, get caught up — this is an old one, from 2006:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/1
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