Joe, if this story was about George W Bush, I have little doubt it would have been the lead news item for days.
mediaresearch.org
Al Gore, Slumlord? Friday night, Nashville's CBS affiliate, WTVF-TV, ran a story on how a family renting a house for $400 a month on Al Gore's property in Smith County, Tennessee had been evicted by a management company employed by Gore, after complaining about backed up toilets and clogged sink drains that were never fixed. "If this had been a Republican, people would have been crying slumlord," observed a liberal pundit Sunday morning.
The AP picked up on the TV news story on Saturday and the revelation became Kate O'Beirne's "Outrage of the Week" on CNN?s Capital Gang Saturday night. Fox News Sunday panelists discussed it Sunday morning, but otherwise the broadcast networks ignored it: Not a word Saturday or Sunday night on the ABC, CBS or NBC evening shows, nor on their Sunday interview shows, even after an embarrassed Gore on Saturday satisfied the family by cancelling the eviction order, agreeing to fix the problems and inviting them over to his neighboring house for dinner.
On the June 4 Fox News Sunday, The Weekly Standard?s Fred Barnes suggested: "I think he's going to basically get away with this. If this had been a conservative Republican, however, who had done this -- George W. Bush say had some farm, he does have a ranch -- and we had the same story, the press would never let go. On this one, with Gore, they?ll let go."
The liberal Juan Williams, formerly of the Washington Post and now a National Public Radio talk show host, agreed: "If this had been a Republican, people would have been crying slumlord. That would be the headline -- Slumlord? -- and a man who doesn't take care of little people...."
"Gore Promises Repairs to Tenant" read the headline over a Saturday night AP dispatch from Nashville by Phil West which appeared on an inside page of Sunday?s Washington Post. He reported:
Tracy Mayberry thought Vice President Al Gore was a slumlord, until Gore called her Saturday and promised to repair overflowing toilets and backed-up sinks in the apartment her family rents from him.
Mayberry and her family pay $400 a month to rent the four-bedroom house within sight of Gore's home in Carthage, about 50 miles east of Nashville. "Before, I was really upset with him. I considered him a slumlord," she said Saturday. "Right now, my opinion varies. If he'll uphold his end of the bargain, that's OK."
After repeated complaints to Gore's property managers, Mayberry said she was told her family -- including her disabled husband, a mentally retarded daughter and another daughter with a seizure disorder -- were being evicted. They live on $1,536 a month in Social Security from her husband's disability.
Frustrated, Mayberry contacted a Nashville television station, WTVF-TV, which aired a story on her situation Friday. By Saturday afternoon, Gore was on the phone to Mayberry, promising to fix the problems and pay for a new place for the family to stay. Republicans were already circulating the TV story to national news organizations.
"He said he'd heard I'd called him a slumlord, and I said I did. I said if you want to run for President, you ought to behave like a landlord should," Mayberry said. "He agreed with me. He said he's going to come in and do a complete renovation...He kept apologizing. He said he's not what you'd call a hands-on landlord. I said I understand he's got a lot of obligations being Vice President and campaigning. But I said I've got a lot of obligations to my family."
Spokesman Doug Hattaway said Gore was not aware of the house's condition until his staff was contacted by WTVF. Plumbing repairs would be so extensive the water would be turned off for quite some time, and the family likely would need to leave while the work was done, he said.
Since the Mayberrys are on a month-to-month lease, the property managers had asked the family to vacate the home while the repairs were made. "I should emphasize for the record they're not being evicted," he said Saturday.
Gore overruled his property managers and instructed his Carthage lawyer to find a place for the family to stay. They will not have to pay rent while the repairs are made, Hattaway said.... |
