Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another

by Matt Taibbi

In polls at the start of the 2000 race, voters felt Al Gore would do a better job on virtually every issue, from the economy to protecting Social Security to education to naming Supreme Court judges to managing health care costs. Bush was really struggling to find an issue to run on that year. Nobody remembers this, but Bush actually ran as a military pragmatist who would not use the army as global police! Condoleezza Rice at his Republican Convention that year said America’s armed services were “not the world’s 911.” Back then, it was Al Gore who was saying new world realities would demand “we confront threats before they spiral out of control.” Whether he deserved to or not, there was every indication that Gore was going to win. Then, before the crucial third presidential debate, something happened. A beer company, Sam Adams, commissioned a poll: Which candidate would you rather sit down and have a beer with, Bush or Gore? By three points, 40–37 percent, Americans narrowly decided they’d rather have a beer with a recovering alcoholic than Al Gore. That’s right: this madness began as a publicity stunt by a beer company, looking to latch on to debate coverage as a way to score free PR. Reporters loved the innovative poll. The “beer test” became shorthand for something they’d struggled over the years to articulate.