MCI’s Vint Cerf Receives Computing’s Highest Honor

Do you really want to perpetuate this silly lie?
The foolish and dishonest claim that Al Gore had ever claimed to have “invented the internet” has been demolished so often and so thoroughly that repeating it under any circumstances would be silly; repeating it in a story that mentions Vint Cerf–one of the people who really did “invent the internet,” AND one of the people who most clearly (and authoritatively!) explained why what Al Gore really did say–that as a senator, he played an important role in helping to create the internet as we know it today–is absolutely true, is a really impressive display of foolishness.

Is the story really made any more interesting by the inclusion of intentionally false Republican talking points?

Re:absolutely…Re:Do you really want to …
The “Love Story” claim is another malicious Republican lie, and I expect you know that. For readers who may have missed it: Al Gore, when asked, said that he had read in a Tennessee paper that Eric Segal had said he and Tipper were the basis of the couple in “Love Story.” And, in fact, that was perfectly correct: the paper had quoted Segal as saying that; they quoted him incorrectly, but Gore at the time he spoke about it had no way to know that.

The claim that he ever said that he had “invented” the internet or anything intended to create that impression is, simply, a flat-out, maliciously-motivated lie. It’s good to know where you stand on the truth–and revealing but not surprising to be reminded of where the fake Christians of the right wing stand on the commandment not to “bear false witness against thy neighbor.”

As for what he did say–even before the Republicans decided to simply lie about it, they had to do heavy editing to make his actual remarks even appear misleading. He was asked about his legislative accomplishments; he responded with an answer that included a most impressive one that he had worked particularly hard on with even less than the normal amount of thanks usually accorded to legislative work. In fact, before so many Republicans decided to manufacture the fake “invented the internet” quote, a good many of them had been equally happy to mock and ridicule him because he had worked so hard on the legislative end of creating the internet.

And doubters can even check this with a source they’ll likely consider more reliable than either me OR Vint Cerf–because while many Republicans first mocked him for working to help create the internet, and then maliciously lied about him when he made the factual statement that he had worked hard legislatively to help create the internet, Newt Gingrich was not among them, and publicly contradicted the prevailing Republican smear.

As for many of the components of the internet existing before Gore’s first term in Congress began–that’s perfectly, and, as you well know, perfectly irrelevant. When Gore first entered Congress, it was a DOD program little-known outside research circles, which DOD had no real interest in expanding. Gore was one of a relatively small number of people in a position to change that who saw the potential for Arpanet to become an “information superhighway”–remember that phrase that Republicans used to love to mock?–and decided to do what he could to make that happen.

But, hey, who cares about facts when you can get people to recite multiply-disproven lies as if they were facts, right, Greg?

Re:absolutely…Re:Do you really want to …
Greg, in citing NRO as an objective and fact-based source, you’re making a parody of yourself.