Gore's Class, Like, Sucked!

Insight on the News, June 4, 2001 by John Elvin

Was he teaching at the nation's most prestigious journalism school to remain in the limelight after his painful divorce from politics?" That's the question posed by Heather Saucier, a student in former vice president Al Gore's eight-week course inflicted on students at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Gore made his living briefly as a newspaper reporter before getting into politics. He also took some flak because, as a reporter in the military during the Vietnam War, he was able thereby to avoid more hazardous duty.

Saucier said it remains something of a "mystery" to students "why the former vice president wanted to pick up a piece of chalk, wander into a classroom and teach a class he called `National Affairs.'" Writing in the Houston Chronicle in her home state of Texas, Saucier said one of the highlights of the course was sitting in class with celebrity visitors, including Rupert Murdoch, Alan Greenspan and David Letterman. Gore invited Letterman, Saucier said, to back him up on his contention that political humor shapes the way people perceive the news. But, she noted, "Letterman disagreed."

Gore's class "turned out to be more icing than cake," Saucier said. Students and faculty members complained outside of class about Gore's refusal to discuss personal or politically substantive matters. They were told that if Gore wouldn't answer questions from Tom Brokaw, surely they couldn't expect that he would answer questions from students. Gore said he hadn't wanted to turn the class into a "press conference." If they didn't like that: "Hey, sorry." Saucier concluded her report on a bemused note: "We were mere peons, desired by the vice president for reasons that may never be fully revealed."