Newsweek
Runs
Gore-Warnecke
Excerpt,
New
Yorker
Column
Good
on
Policy
but
Unfair
to
Sources
2/11/00
Three weeks after a DRCNet special report revealed that Newsweek magazine had delayed publication of an excerpt from a soon-to-be-published biography of Al Gore, Newsweek has decided to run the story, in the Feb. 14 issue of the magazine. In "Inventing Gore: A Biography," John Warnecke, an old friend of Gore's from his Tennessean reporter days, claims that the extent and duration of Gore's marijuana use was greater than the candidate has previously admitted and that Warnecke was pressured to stonewall when asked about it by reporters (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/gore.html). Warnecke told biographer and Newsweek reporter Bill Turque that "he'll vote for Gore, but is offended by the hypocrisy of boomer politicians who did drugs when they were young and now preside over a legal system where drug offenders often serve longer sentences than rapists." Though the Washington Post claimed, without quoting any sources, that Newsweek had pulled the excerpt due to concerns over its credibility, Newsweek itself never made such a statement. Interestingly, the Post article failed to inform readers of the Post's own conflict of interest -- the Post owns Newsweek. The Turque excerpt as finally published was not watered down from the original, and includes a quote from another former Tennessean reporter, Andrew Schlesinger, backing up Warnecke. A column by Henrik Hertzberg in the February issue of The New Yorker magazine provides an in-depth discussion of the drug policy and social justice issues that Warnecke -- and DRCNet -- hoped to bring forward with release of the Gore information. Unfortunately, the otherwise excellent column is marred by an unfair treatment of Warnecke himself. Warnecke told The Week Online, "It's a good article on government policy, but its characterization of me is damning and libelous. They paint a picture of me as a Falstaff-like character suffering from alcoholism. The truth is I'm recovered and haven't had a drink in 21 years, but that's not mentioned -- nor did they ever call me to check out their facts on the story." The column's second flaw is its incorrect attribution of the Gore story to a secondary rather than the primary source. Hertzberg writes "... an Internet reporter (in this case Jake Tapper, of Salon) gets a tip...." Hertzberg doesn't seem to have actually read Tapper's story, however, which appeared on Jan. 22nd and which prominently cites and links to DRCNet's story of the 20th -- a story which had been linked to and written about in sources such as Drudge Report, Media Gossip and the Boston Herald on the 20th and 21st. (Tapper's article and interview can be read online at http://www.salon.com/politics2000/feature/2000/01/22/gore/.) Otherwise, the New Yorker piece could almost serve as a textbook for drug policy reform rhetoric: "[T]he failure of the twenty-year "drug war" has never been more apparent... Interdiction has functioned mainly as a protectionist and R. & D. program for the burgeoning domestic marijuana industry... The prison population, which fifteen years ago was under three-quarters of a million, will cross the two-million mark sometime this month... This costly jihad has scared off some casual users, but it has done nothing to reduce the number of hardcore addicts." Hertzberg discusses the medical marijuana initiatives, and makes note of mainstream politicians like New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, a Republican, and Rep. Tom Campbell of California, probable Republican nominee for Senate, who have taken stands in favor of fundamental reform.
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