No! Al Gore never claimed to invent the internet

[Roon]

he said he created the Internet. Just because I created a cake, doesn't mean I invented it. My right wing Uncle's reply.....OH!

[trumad]

1. He didn't even say that.....

He said he took the "initiative" in creating the internet. He then went to discuss those initiatives that he introduced in congress.

[AlinPA]

2. I went to conferences where he spoke in support of funding for supercomputing and the internet.

It was when he was in the Senate. If we were to ask some of the pioneers of the internet, Cerf and others, they would agree that his role was very important in getting the funding to get it moving.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/10/02/net_builders_kahn_cerf_recognise/
(edited to add link)

[papau]

10. The Gore push prior to his 87 bill, and the funding in his 89 bill, grew the ARPAnet into Internet

[izzie]

3. I think he just pushed the bill for it. That other stuff was so silly

but who can say what people will believe? I am always shocked with the calls on C-Span. Where do these people get that stuff from?

[AlinPA]

4. See this link.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/10/02/net_builders_kahn_cerf_recognise/

[Roon]

12. Your right..

eom

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. Yes. Important distinction. Gore 'helped create' the Internet but Bush 'invented' WMDs.

[Festivito]

6. Gore "took initiative IN CREATING" not invented.

In creating is DURING the creation.
Invented is starting, not during.

CONs changed "in creating" to "invented" in order to lie about Gore.

They also changed the word "that" to "I" in order to lie about Gore when Gore in finishing a story about a young persons LETTER to him, Gore said "THAT was the one the started it all." The letter had started research into toxic waste in on Toon and looking up river found it near LOVE CANAL. So, the Washington Post said Gore said: "*I* was the one that found" love canal." (Sure he found it, ON A MAP.) The Washington Post took weeks to retract the I, then stated it made no difference since Al said he found Love Canal.

Al Gore said his life story was incorporated into a character the book: Love Story. The author said, yes, that's true. SO HOW IS THAT A LIE except that Republican are inveterate liars.

[Shipwack]

9. Actually, the initial lie wasn't by a conservative...

Or at last, not by a neo-con.

The initial twist of the statement was by Declan McCullagh at Wired magazine, a stone cold anarchist who hated "big" governement, and hated any evidence that proved government could do good things, like the internet. He later retracted his story, but who reads retractions? :shrug:

The right-wing spin machine took the story and ran with it, and the rest, sadly, is history.

[Festivito]

11. Thanks, that's fun. But, the CONs still changed it,

...every time they wrote it and every time they spoke it.

[Canuckistanian]

13. Here's Declan McCullagh's "retraction"

During a March 1999 CNN interview, while trying to differentiate
himself from rival Bill Bradley, Gore boasted: "During my service in
the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the
Internet."

That statement was enough to convince me, with the encouragement of my
then-editor James Glave, to write a brief article that questioned the
vice president's claim. Republicans on Capitol Hill noticed the Wired
News writeup and started faxing around tongue-in-cheek press releases
-- inveterate neatnik Trent Lott claimed to have invented the paper
clip -- and other journalists picked up the story too.

My article never used the word "invented," but it didn't take long for
Gore's claim to morph into something he never intended.

The terrible irony in this exchange is that while Gore certainly
didn't create the Internet, he was one of the first politicians to
realize that those bearded, bespectacled researchers were busy
crafting something that could, just maybe, become pretty important.

http://seclists.org/politech/2000/Oct/0032.html

[elizfeelinggreat]

7. The "inventors" gave Gore credit for a lot!

I remember reading about that and I went looking for something and found this (hope this site is reputable):

http://www.politechbot.com/p-01394.html

Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 17:43:58 -0400
From: vinton g. cerf
<>
Subject: Al Gore and the Internet
<snip>
become the Internet.

I thought you might find this short summary of sufficient
interest to share it with Politech and the IP lists, respectively.

---

Al Gore and the Internet

By Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf
Al Gore was the first political leader to recognize the importance of the Internet and to promote and support its development.

No one person or even small group of persons exclusively “invented” the Internet. It is the result of many years of ongoing collaboration among people in government and the university community. But as the two people who designed the basic architecture and the core protocols that make the Internet work, we would like to acknowledge VP Gore’s contributions as a Congressman, Senator and as Vice President. No other elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time.

Last year the Vice President made a straightforward statement on his role. He said: “During my service in the United States Congress I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” We don’t think, as some people have argued, that Gore intended to claim he “invented” the Internet. Moreover, there is no question in our minds that while serving as Senator, Gore’s initiatives had a significant and beneficial effect on the still-evolving Internet. The fact of the matter is that Gore was talking about and promoting the Internet long before most people were listening. We feel it is timely to offer our perspective.

As far back as the 1970s Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship. Though easily forgotten, now, at the time this was an unproven and controversial concept. Our work on the Internet started in 1973 and was based on even earlier work that took place in the mid-late 1960s. But the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication. As an example, he sponsored hearings on how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like coordinating the response of government agencies to natural disasters and other crises.

As a Senator in the 1980s Gore urged government agencies to consolidate what at the time were several dozen different and unconnected networks into an “Interagency Network.” Working in a bi-partisan manner with officials in Ronald Reagan and George Bush’s administrations, Gore secured the passage of the High Performance Computing and Communications Act in 1991. This “Gore Act” supported the National Research and Education Network (NREN) initiative that became one of the major vehicles for the spread of the Internet beyond the field of computer science.

As Vice President Gore promoted building the Internet both up and out, as well as releasing the Internet from the control of the government agencies that spawned it. He served as the major administration proponent for continued investment in advanced computing and networking and private sector initiatives such as Net Day. He was and is a strong proponent of extending access to the network to schools and libraries. Today, approximately 95% of our nation’s schools are on the Internet. Gore provided much-needed political support for the speedy privatization of the Internet when the time arrived for it to become a commercially-driven operation.

There are many factors that have contributed to the Internet’s rapid growth since the later 1980s, not the least of which has been political support for its privatization and continued support for research in advanced networking technology. No one in public life has been more intellectually engaged in helping to create the climate for a thriving Internet than the Vice President. Gore has been a clear champion of this effort, both in the councils of government and with the public at large.

The Vice President deserves credit for his early recognition of the value of high speed computing and communication and for his long-term and consistent articulation of the potential value of the Internet to American citizens and industry and, indeed, to the rest of the world.

[On the Road]

8. The Daily Howler

tracked in great detail how the media picked this up. Dick Armey had a lot to do with it. Here are three of the links:

http://www.dailyhowler.com/h032699_1.shtml

http://www.dailyhowler.com/h032999_1.shtml

http://dailyhowler.com/dh120302.shtml (partway down)