One of the very first items we wrote for ConWebWatch 12 years ago was about how conservatives were misinterpreting Al Gore’s comments about his role in creating the Internet. We’re still writing about it.
In a Sept. 9 NewsBusters post — the same one in which he complains that someone had the audacity to fact-check Paul Ryan’s claim about running an implausibly fast marathon — Noel Sheppard was just as apoplectic that CBS’ Norah O’Donnell “actually equated the error to Al Gore saying he invented the internet.” Sheppard repeated himself later in the post, saying that O’Donnell “compared his error – about a marathon time from 22 years ago! – to another politician boasting about inventing the internet,” huffily adding: “Does O’Donnell really think someone’s time in a race is as consequential as an invention that has radically changed our very way of life?”
Of course, Gore never said he “invented the internet” — he said that he “took the initiative in creating the Internet” as a congressman, a claim the Media Research Center has misinterpreted numerous times. And as we’ve pointed out several times since that original item, the folks who did invent the Internet, like Vinton Cerf, credit Gore for his role in forwarding it.
Sheppard has regularly lied about Al Gore, so it’s no surprise that he would cling to this lie for so long.