The BBC, Al Gore and Memory Loss

I don't know why I bothered, but last night I decided to watch the end of BBC2's Newsnight.

Following a segment about Al Gore coming out to back Howard Dean, Jeremy Paxman then had a live one-to-one with the BBC's Washington DC correspondent, Tom Carver. Both of them pointed out that Gore had lost the Presidential election in 2000.

Except that those of us who have done our research know that it wasn't as simple as that at all.

Before the programme had even finished I had already started writing an email to both of these `journalists'.

Here is my email, followed by Mr Paxman's response, received early this afternoon.

From: Simon Aronowitz 

Sent: 09 December 2003 23:28

To: 'jeremy.paxman@bbc.co.uk'; 'tom.carver@bbc.co.uk'

Subject: Al Gore and memory loss

Gentlemen,

When you both declared this evening on Newsnight that Al Gore lost the 2000 election, you seem to have forgotten the work done by the very programme you were speaking on.

It was not too long after the 2000 US Presidential election that that your very own Greg Palast reported on Newsnight of how the Bush mob and their cohorts had arranged the theft of the election in Florida. Subsequent investigations by other organisations and journalists have confirmed that were it not for the outright fiddling of various types, Gore would have won the state. Or to put it more accurately - Gore DID win Florida, but the Supreme Court presented the country with one of the most flagrant abuses of its power by INSTALLING Bush as the illegitimate occupier of the White House.

Other investigations appear to have demonstrated that fraud was perpetrated against the voters of Tennessee, Gore's home state. Many were [surprised] when he failed to carry his own territory.

So imagine my amazement when you declared this evening that Gore lost the election. No qualifications, no references to Palast's work, nothing.

By the way, isn't it about time you had Greg back on Newsnight to update British viewers on the dirty deals made by the Bush administration?

And have either of you read his book, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy"? If not, I recommend it as an excellent read.

In summary, I was dismayed at the plummeting quality of BBC journalism. Come on guys, it was a live broadcast, you could have said anything you wanted. If you had told the truth, Newsnight's viewers would have been ecstatic. Instead, you've let us down. Again.

Sincerely,

Simon Aronowitz

 

And now Paxman's response:

From: Jeremy Paxman [mailto:jeremy.paxman@bbc.co.uk]

Sent: 10 December 2003 12:31

To: Simon Aronowitz

Subject: RE: Al Gore and memory loss

 

I'm afraid you're simply wrong. We specifically said Gore won the popular vote. You cannot deny that Gore did NOT win the presidency at the end of the Florida shenanigans. As for Greg's book, which I found interesting, by his own admission, it contains '42 mistakes'.

Either Mr Paxman, who also hosts the BBC's `University Challenge' quiz show, can't read English, or he just didn't bother to absorb what I had written before writing his half-baked response.

You can see some of Palast's work on the theft of the election here, at the BBC's own website.

It seems that Newsnight's most infamous presenter really does have memory loss. I never did say that Newsnight reported that Gore had won the election. I did say that subsequent investigations had revealed that Gore had won Florida, once all the `shenanigans' were out the way.

If Paxman was worth his salt, he would have looked beyond the BBC's coverage and he would have discovered the count which eventually happened some time in 2001 that showed that Gore had won Florida. As I recall, the American media could not bear to make this fact known, so just like the BBC they ignored it, but those who followed that post-theft recount were well aware that the fix was in.

Shame on the BBC and shame on Jeremy Paxman for what is now becoming lazy journalism.

Comments, anyone?

Update - Tuesday 13th January 2004

Jeremy Paxman really shouldn't have been so off-hand with me in his email. I asked Greg Palast for his take on the whole situation, given that Paxman was apparently questioning the quality of his work and forgetting the awards his programme won.

Here's Greg's response:

I'm a bit surprised at my colleague's remark. It is Newsnight which estimated that, had Blacks not been purged from the polls, some 22,000 votes would have added to Gore's Florida total ... a broadcast for which we've won several awards.

As to the '46 mistakes' in my book ... that's from a self-deprecating joke I made on Start the Week ... these were in fact pre-publication copy edit errors. I think I need to chat with Mr P when I'm back in Blighty.

Paxo I'm sure misspoke himself ... one of the 47 errors.

Thanks,
Greg

Greg Palast's website can be found at

http://www.gregpalast.com