Sunday, March 04, 2007

 

Al Gore DID NOT win an Oscar


By Edward Copeland
I knew this was going to happen from before An Inconvenient Truth was even nominated for the Oscar for documentary feature. The film won and even though the Oscar went to the film's director Davis Guggenheim NOT Al Gore, that hasn't stopped the punditocracy who know nothing about how the Academy Awards work to continue to perpetuate the incorrect idea that Gore himself won an Oscar. He did not. Some are so clueless as to believe he got the Oscar that went to Melissa Etheridge for best song as well. Get your facts right. Below are some examples of the incorrect fact written across the medium. I've found so many that I'm not even going to attempt to list them all.


From a San Jose Mercury-News editorial:
Al Gore could become the only man to win an Oscar, a Nobel Prize and his party's presidential nomination within a span of 12 months.
He already has collected an Oscar for his global-warming documentary ``An Inconvenient Truth.'' (Actually, that's two Oscars, if you count best song.) He's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by an admiring Norwegian lawmaker. But to have a shot at the trifecta — California's presidential primary will be 11 months from tomorrow — Gore will have to declare himself a candidate for president.

From Bill Press' column:
He's a Vietnam vet. He's been against the war in Iraq since the beginning. He's leading the fight against global warming. He served as congressman, senator and vice president of the United States. He's star of one of the most successful documentary films in history. He just won an Oscar. And he's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

From Correspondents' Reports on ABC Radio in Australia:
ELIZABETH JACKSON: The former US vice president Al Gore has spent the last week basking in the glow of his big win in that great entertainment contest, the Academy Awards.
Mr Gore picked up an Oscar for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth, a film that sounds dire warnings about the dangers of global warming.

From a Chicago Tribune editorial:
Such a unique trauma might have left Gore bitter and rudderless. But it didn't. And today, it looks like a blessing in disguise. On Sunday night, Gore won an Academy Award with a wonkish documentary about the causes and dangers of global warming — a production that might seem as out of place in Hollywood as a convent.

Robert Guttman in The Huffington Post:
But is he ready to run again for president? Give Al Gore credit. He has gone from being known as the man who lost the presidency in 2000 to being the man who just won an Oscar for best documentary for his film entitled An Inconvenient Truth about the perils of global warming.


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Comments:
Good for you, Ed. My extreme dislike for Mr. Gore aside, I've been going nuts over everyone talking about "his" Oscar. Oy.
 
So glad you wrote this. I've heard a half dozen people on television and radio in the last couple of weeks talking about Oscar Winner Al Gore. It's very annoying. It's amazing enough that a documentary of a power point presentation could win an Oscar given all of the quality docmentaries that get made every year.
 
I haven't seen Iraq in Fragments, but of the four nominees I did see, Deliver Us From Evil was far and away the best.
 
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