Kristol and Krauthammer Nail the Absurdity of Gore Winning Nobel Peace Prize

Truth be told, I was hoping "Fox News Sunday" would totally ignore Friday's announcement that the Global Warmingist-in-Chief won the Nobel Peace Prize.

After all, mainstream news outlets regularly boycott events they deem un-newsworthy, like people receiving the Medal of Honor, for example.

As such, in the grand scheme of things, what really was the significance of a charlatan winning an award -- one that had previously been given to that marvelous humanitarian Yasser Arafat, no less! -- exactly one day after a real American hero was posthumously bestowed one of the finest honors in our land to a deafening media silence?

Despite my skepticism, as the panel discussion began Sunday, and Bill Kristol enunciated likely the exact sentiments shared by people still capable of thinking for themselves, I realized just how fortuitous it was for this to be the first topic on the docket (video available here):

Friday, I felt a warm glow thinking that this man got the Nobel Peace Prize for bloviating about global warming. I mean, it's a prize given by bloviators to a bloviator for nothing. What did he - he was Vice President of the United States for eight years. I missed the Clinton administration's bold initiatives on global warming and carbon caps. Did they enforce the Kyoto Treaty? I don't think so. You know, so he gets the Nobel Peace Prize for talking, when brave people in Burma, and in Iraq, and journalists in Russia are being killed by dictators. And the Nobel committed of course has no interest in any of them.

Exactly. Next, after NPR's Mara Liasson said her piece, Charles Krauthammer put an exclamation point on Kristol's view:

Look, let's remember what the Prize is about. Al Gore now joins the ranks of Yasser Arafat, the father of modern terrorism, Le Doc Tho, who signed a treaty on behalf of a government that two years later invaded and extinguished the country it signed that treaty with, and the most disgraceful ex-president of the United States Jimmy Carter, who, forget about Iraq -- I'll remind you in the Gulf War, actively lobbied other countries to oppose his country in helping it in going to war. So, look, this is a treaty that is, has nothing to do with peace, it's about politics. It's the...I'm sorry, the award.

The Nobel Peace Prize is about politics. It's the Kentucky Derby of the world left, and it gives it to people whose politics are either anti-American or anti-Bush, and that's why he won it.

Exactly. Next, after NPR's Juan Williams predictably gushed over the Nobel announcement like a teeny-bopper around a rock star, Kristol offered another salient point:

I think there's something about this wonderfully moving narrative about Al Gore that Juan likes to compare to Mother Teresa. I haven't noticed Al Gore taking a vow of poverty recently. You know, there's something sick really about taking the whole thing seriously. The day before the Nobel Peace Prize was announced, President Bush signed off on the third Medal, Congressional Medal of Honor in the current global war on terror. The first for anyone who served in Afghanistan, for Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy.

This got about one-one thousandth the coverage of the Nobel Peace Prize which as Charles says is an entirely political gesture. There are fewer Congressional Medals of Honor awarded than Nobel Peace Prizes. The New York Times, this is, Mike Murphy, the 29-year-old who died in 2005, from Long Island. The New York Times, the local newspaper for this genuine American hero, hasn't mentioned it. Huge stories, Al Gore, what a narrative, what sacrifices he's made to produce this movie and to become a multi-zillionaire as he makes himself so famous touting the cause of global warming.

Michael Murphy gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, and the New York Times, our leading newspaper and the local newspaper in this case, can't notice it. There's something sick about, about our culture when we don't acknowledge genuine heroes, and, as I say, give a prize, make such a big deal about some guy who's made a movie.

In fact, according to LexisNexis, outside of New York's local papers such as Newsday, the Daily News, and the New York Post, no major daily bothered reporting Lt. Murphy receiving the Medal of Honor.

And, other than Fox News, which did six reports about Murphy, not one television news organization mentioned it. Not one.

By contrast, since Friday morning, there have been 1,378 reports about Al Gore, including fourteen by the New York Times, 29 by CNN, fourteen by CBS, and eight by the Washington Post.

It's good to know these organizations have their priorities right, wouldn't you agree?