This behavior is completely unacceptable. Access by reporters should be as unfettered as possible. This de facto form of censorship needs to stop.
It seems that Mr. Gore is applying a double standard. Note the placard advising members of the press placed outside his own global warming presentation:
Flashback: Gore to press: Stay Out! | Watts Up With That?
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.
Flashback: Gore Bans Press (Again) From CTIA Speech | News & Opinion | PCMag.com
In a highly ironic move, Al Gore has barred the press from even attending his speech at the upcoming CTIA Wireless 2009 conference, the nation’s largest gathering of the wireless communications industry.
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I’m confused by the communication to which Algore is referring. Restricted airspace is never controlled by any private entity; BP could not grant permission, as Algore, intimates they could, even if BP wanted to.
Something is amiss with Algore’s original information, or he is as big an idiot as I fear he is.
Pamela Gray says: “I am beginning to think something is not quite right with Al. Is it possible that he has some underlying mental health issue that might explain this? Could it be one of the reasons for the recent separation? I have a pretty good nose for this kind of stuff and when the hair on the back of my neck stands up, I have usually been right.”
He seems to judge himself by his intentions, instead of by his actions. What other sort of people do you know that do this? That does not mean, of course, that just because he shows symptoms of a particular condition, he must, dipso facto, suffer from it.
A wonderful way of exposing Al would be to feed him fantastically incorrect information like hmm…. ah…. um…. “‘the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot” and let him make an absolute fool of himself on national TV.
Nuh silly idea – not even HIMSELF is that stupid.
Pamela Grey, June 14, 6:50.
Interesting observation, it is a fine line between blind determination of a leader and obstinacy at not viewing any alternate opinion. We have a leader in this country at the moment who is frightening in his determination that everything he touches turns to gold, but cannot see that he has become the most unpopular prime minister since Federation 110 years ago.
Shakespeare says it better, in fewer lines…..
Al Gore? Double standards?
Hell no!
He has no standards at all except “fleece the rubes” for all they are worth.
Keith Minto says: ” Shakespeare says it better, in fewer lines…..
I am in (Climate Change)
Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
Macbeth. ACT III Scene 4.”
I have held that Al was going to a Shakespearian type end.
this may be the start..
Knowing what Gore has been up to (peddaling snake oil legislation) he’s probably worried about a repeat of 1859 wiping out Earth’s communications. So my guess is that he’s got a new stock trading scheme cooked up, selling tech security and backup insurance.
Douglas Dc,
I should finish the quote…
Shakespeare seemed to anticipate these times !
Someone told me that not everyone at WUWT is a right wing crank. I’m still looking for the evidence.
[snip]
When Al Gore was Vice President, did the people (in this case a “BP contractor”) answering the phone set the policies?!
From his own link:
“The Federal Aviation Administration, responding to criticism following the incident with Southern Seaplane, has revised its flight restrictions over the gulf to allow for news media flights on a case-by-case basis.”
His desire to pin a “BP contractor” with this is pathetic. It is bizzarothink! Or perhaps the former VP does not even realize he is criticizing Unified Command? HA!
nitpicking, I know but…well, he can’t even get the above right. The crude oil spilling into the gulf isn’t black, even processed unused oil isn’t black.
What a pathetic little man!
First to Pamela,
This is what happens when constant greed and power hunger overpower reason. His heart is so full of the sins of greed and powerlust that he has become deluded with his own words… remember the story about the Emperors new clothes? Gore aint just dancin naked with a moose on his head he’s wacked out on crank on top of it.
Now as to this comment on his blog…
First: it’s apparent why he has no comments allowed on his blog… 🙂
Second: Everyone will be excited to know that I sent an email to his office in Nashville via the Climate Project website and I know any day now that Mr. Gore will be sending me a communique regarding this situation. I’ll be sitting next to my keyboard and screen 24/7 waiting to send you all the exciting news of his correspondence to this humble American citizen.
But then what can one expect from the man who thinks himself so superior he can spit in the face of the Senate committee and ignore the rules of providing his testimony 48 hours in advance. He didn’t he gave it to the democrat office at 1am and they gave it to the republican office at 7 and the hearing was supposed to begin at 9. Once again the democratic chairman making special allowances for Gore because he didn’t want to sit around and listen to the Republican comments against Mr. Gore. Who he heck does this arrogant %%%###!@ur momisugly@@ur momisugly!!!$%$%%^^^^ think he is?
He think he is a very wealthy man entitled to even more wealth at your expense.
Richard M says:
June 14, 2010 at 6:26 pm
“It’s all about controlling the message.”
No It’s all about controlling the audience.
Pamela Gray says:
June 14, 2010 at 6:50 pm
“I am beginning to think something is not quite right with Al. Is it possible that he has some underlying mental health issue that might explain this? Could it be one of the reasons for the recent separation?”
Psychic Larry says that it’s all about money. The Gores’ strategic divorce will be a hedge against the probable collapse of Al’s carbon-trading empire in the near future. If a newly-divorced Tipper dumps her half, ‘on the advise of her financial manager’, it would not send as many ripples through the funny-money market as would an identical transaction on the part of the Gores, as a couple.
The FAA has posted a notice to airmen regarding flight restrictions in the area. The pilot should have known full well this was controlled airspace and made an effort to schedule and get clearance to fly ahead of time, not just popping up on the air net and asking for a fly by.
I would like to hear the full back story on this attempt.
When I worked in Emergency Management the “I’m the Press I want to fly over your emergency” attitude was always a problem. They never could understand that they were putting other peoples lives at risk by encroaching on formally closed airspace or even just using common sense in uncontrolled areas.
A responsible news organization would have gotten clearance for the flight ahead of time. It is not as if this is “breaking news” where there was a legitimate question of urgency to get the news out. This has been going on for some time.
There were a rare small number of news chopper pilots we could trust. They usually had prior military experience (ie Vietnam) and understood the concept of air control. They were a pleasure to work with and would even offer help to the emergency services agencies when they were in a position to contribute to the response.
One of them dropped military food rations to my search team and the lost family we had just discovered. Another helped our search team confirm and locate a dead body on a 14,000 ft mountain top as I talked him into the area we had spotted what looked like a man down through a high power telescope. In other cases they have at our request taken specific video or a disaster scene or even on occasion given a third party a quick aerial view of the situation and contributed to the response and recovery operation rather than been a thorn in the side, seeking special access just because they work for some media outlet.
Unfortunately those news organizations are a distinct minority in the industry.
I suspect something has been left out of this tale!
http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_0_5100.html#areas
Larry
It seems that Mr. Gore is applying a double standard.
Uncle Al is the gold standard for double standard.
“When the operators of Southern Seaplane in Belle Chasse, La., called the local Coast Guard-Federal Aviation Administration command center for permission to fly over restricted airspace in Gulf of Mexico, they made what they thought was a simple and routine request.”
FAA consistently prohibits unauthorized access to the airspace over and around disaster relief areas. In this instance, entry into the no-fly area around the rig is limited to “routine flights supporting offshore oil operations; federal, state, local and military flight operations supporting oil spill recovery and reconstitution efforts; and air medical and law enforcement operations.” There’s a *reason* for doing that — aerial sightseers and media don’t play well with aircraft involved in relief operations. The last thing a helicopter pilot flying relief crews out to a barge or a rig needs to worry about is another helicopter maneuvering in his blind spot, then darting into his flight path so Sky Cam can get an exciting 10-second video clip for the six o’clock news…
Al Gore does not have double standards.
His only standard is ME win.
Forget the left-wing nut-job Al Gore; compared with the insane utterings of Obama he does not seem too bad.
Pamela Grey Says “Is it possible that he has some underlying mental health issue that might explain this? Could it be one of the reasons for the recent separation?”
Pamela, some call that separation a frontal lobotomy.
In the 70’s I worked in the Libyan Oil Fields in the Sirte Basin. No aircraft, not even company owned aircraft were allowed to fly over or near any oil installation or rig.
Have they no idea of just how dangerous it is? The Gas plant at Dahra in the 70’s used to spontaneously pop and bang regularly without any help from us, and most of the piping and vessels were pyrophoric.
Occasionally, the Libyan Air Force would fly over very low (target practise?) and the company got really mad about it, but were powerless to act. Beleive me, you don’t want to fly over an oil slick to take pictures.
ianam says:
June 14, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Someone told me that not everyone at WUWT is a right wing crank. I’m still looking for the evidence.
—————–Reply
Au contraire, dear ianam. Where is your evidence that ANYBODY at WUWT is a “right wing crank”. Is this your inane reaction because a proper description and analysis regarding this incident by various contributors makes Mr. Gore look like a complete and total fool and idiot?
Welcome to the real world. By the way, “inane” means “lacking sense or signficance” in case you’re stumped.