With all of the focus on Al Gore these days as a result of his successful new movie, it was only a matter of time before New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney jumped on the bandwagon and penned a piece on the former two-term Vice President. But judging by the article, which runs in the Sunday Times, Gore was well prepared to combat Nagourney's often excessive focus on the political horserace over substance.

"Stop covering politics; cover the climate crisis. It is not too late!" he said, with a boom of laughter.

"Have you read my book?" he asked a moment later. "Have you seen the movie?" Mr. Gore cluck-clucked at the "not yet but I will" response.

[...]

"We need to shift gears in corporate America and in our politics and in our economy and in our culture," he said. "Most of all, political scribes have to take off their cynical lenses through which they view every moral challenge as political spin."

Truth be told, I haven't seen "An Inconvenient Truth" -- though to be fair it hasn't opened yet in Portland -- nor have I read the book. But if I were about to interview Al Gore at least in part about his movie and book -- particularly were I the chief national political reporter for The Times -- I probably would have made the effort to either read the book or see the movie rather than simply make assumptions that fit into my own political narrative.

Not only does Gore call Nagourney's bluff by pointedly asking him if he had actually read the book or seen the movie, the former VP also rightfully attacks the "cynical lenses through which [reporters] view every moral challenge as political spin."

Regardless of what the Washington media believe, the primary reason behind "An Inconvenient Truth" is not to rescussitate Gore's political career but rather to draw attention to an issue Gore has cared about for decades. And if they can't understand that -- instead writing endless analysis pieces about how this is all a big scheme by Gore to set the groundwork for a presidential campaign in 2008 -- they are missing the boat and are fundamentally disconnected from the jobs they actually should be doing.

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