Error in Washington Post Column Attacking Al Gore

[Dr Ron]

Originally posted at Liberal Values--see original post for links:

http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=1657



Fact Checking The Gore Fact Checker

Andrew Ferguson of the conservative Weekly Standard has an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he attempts to discredit Al Gore, starting out by saying, “You can’t really blame Al Gore for not using footnotes in his new book, The Assault on Reason. This implication is that Gore is making errors and does not provide references. I would refer Mr Ferguson to page 277 where the notes begin.

Despite the implications about the accuracy of Gore’s work, Ferguson only directly challenges one item writing, “I’d love to know where he found the scary quote from Abraham Lincoln that he uses on page 88.”

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.

The note on page 282 shows that Gore attributes this quote to Lincoln as being from a letter to Colonel William F. Elkins from November 21, 1964. Gore’s source for this letter is The Lincoln Encyclopedia edited by Archer H. Shaw (New York: Mcmillan, 1950, p. 40.)

Ferguson states this is a misquotation from Lincoln, and having two contradictory claims I cannot be certain which reference is correct. What I do know is that Ferguson is incorrect in claiming Gore does not provide a source for the quote, or the other facts in his book. It very well may be the case that a quotation attributed to Lincoln was incorrect, but even if Gore’s reference is in error, this hardly undermines the many arguments that Gore makes.

Michael P.F. van der Galiën comments and accepts Ferguson’s claim that the quotation is not correct. Even in accepting this, he rejects Ferguson’s argument:

Having said that, it has to be pointed out, of course, that this misquote does not discredit Gore’s message. His point still stands: Reason is, according to Gore, assaulted by politicians, lobbyists and the media alike. Reason has been replaced by soundbites and shouting and yelling at each other. Political discourse has become a caricature of what it once was. Science is under attack by pseudo-science, the list goes on and on.

[Buzz Clik]

1. Endnotes, footnotes. Eh.

[Dr Ron]

2. That's it. Gore has no "footnotes"

Gore has end notes and not foot notes. Those conservatives will swear they are telling the truth when they say Gore has no foot notes and makes a big point of Gore having no source for his quote. He leaves out the fact that Gore has end notes which include this particular quote.