O'REILLY: In the "Personal Story" segment tonight, Al Gore and "Boston Globe" columnist Jeff Jacoby.
Mr. Jacoby recently wrote a column criticizing the vice president and, in the column, Jacoby also scolded George W. Bush for some of the things he said about John McCain. Well, it seems Mr. Gore used part of that column in a press release, and the columnist is not happy about it.
Jeff Jacoby joins us now from Boston.
So what are you objecting to here with the vice president?
JEFF JACOBY, "THE BOSTON GLOBE": Well, Bill, the truth is it's more amusing than offensive, but to find myself and my words being used in a press release from the Gore campaign in which they quote selectively from a column of mine that had taken swipe after swipe at Al Gore struck me as one more example of the vice president playing a little bit fast and loose with the facts.
O'REILLY: All right. So basically the column was you don't like the vice president as a politician very much, but you did point out some of the things that George W. Bush didn't do, in your opinion, well in the campaign against John McCain, and the -- what context did the vice president use that in?
JACOBY: I wrote a column the day after Super Tuesday, and the column began by saying, "Yesterday, I voted against Al Gore," and it went on to say that "the reason I hadn't voted in the Republican primary, although people who know my politics might expect me to vote that way, is because I'd been turned off by the way those two candidates had been slinging mud at each other in the last few weeks leading up to Super Tuesday.
"The way these two behaved," I wrote, "you'd have felt they were disciples of Al Gore," and it went on a little bit, and it said something like "And if you -- if you don't know now how ruthless and nasty the vice president's campaign is going to be come November, just hang on for the ride and wait." There was quite a bit in there that made it clear exactly what I think about Gore.
Imagine my surprise when a few weeks later, a press release comes out from the Gore campaign that purports to cite media source after media source talking about the inappropriate tenor of the Republican campaign, and there is the Jeff Jacoby column quoted in the middle of it with no mention made of the fact that it's far more...
O'REILLY: All right. So he...
JACOBY: ... critical of the Gore's tenor.
O'REILLY: He cherry picked your comments, took them out of context...
O'REILLY: ... and then used them in a press release. But I don't believe Al Gore himself had anything to do with this. I think it's just his people. You know, everybody has people these days, Jeff. I think they did it. What do you think about that?
JACOBY: You're -- you're probably right, and the truth of the matter is -- I mean, Bill, we -- we know how it works, and the truth of the matter is this wouldn't have been enough of a reason to write a column if it weren't for the fact that it feeds into a pattern and to a -- to an understanding that a lot of people now have about the way Al Gore works, that facts are things to be played with, that truth is always a little bit fuzzy, and the fact that we've had case after case after case of this with Al Gore just means now that people like me will start spotting things where once again he's...
O'REILLY: Well...
JACOBY: ... twisting the facts a little bit.
O'REILLY: ... it's -- it's the politics of deception. That's what it is.
O'REILLY: Deception. I mean, both candidates, Gore and Bush, have used those politics of deception in their quest so far, and, you know, by taking the breast cancer out -- Governor Bush did that against John McCain. Yes, there was a time when John McCain did cast a vote against breast cancer because it was in a bigger bill, and -- and -- but he didn't explain that. He just cherry picked it out. And Gore did it, too. But don't Americans now know that almost every politician is going to deceive on a certain level?
JACOBY: You know what? Any politician who runs for president and any campaign of somebody who's running nationwide is on occasion going to be a little careless with the way they tell something about the opponent. The thing with Al Gore is that there's a history that goes back now 15, 20, 25 years in which statements that he's made about himself, about his career, about his votes, about his family, about his opponents all seem to turn out, when you look one inch below the surface, not to be quite square...
O'REILLY: All right. Well, I think that's...
JACOBY: ... and that's what feeds into this...
O'REILLY: ... the rap that he has. That's for sure. He definitely has that rap.
Now I -- I've got to ask you a personal question.
I've known Jeff Jacoby for a long time. We were columnists together at "The Boston Herald."
Somebody told me that you were the most unpopular guy at "The Boston Globe" of everybody, that -- that -- because "The Globe" is such a liberal newspaper, people just avoid you in the halls. Is that true?
JACOBY: Are you kidding? They love me at "The Boston Globe" just like they loved me at "The Boston Herald."
O'REILLY: Well, "The Herald's" a conservative paper. But does anybody take your politics -- conservative politics against you at "The Globe."
JACOBY: You know what? I remind people all the time that "The Boston Globe" is a lot more than just the editors and reporters in the newsroom. It's the drivers who distribute the newspapers. It's the guys in the pressroom. It's the people who run the cafeteria. There's a huge number of people who work there, and most of them have politics that aren't terribly similar to the politics in...
O'REILLY: All right. Would it be true, though, Jeff, to say that a few of the people are just kind of avoiding you because...
O'REILLY: All right, Jeff. Thanks very much. We appreciate it.