Are there two Jacob Weisbergs? The Slate editor seems to have trouble making up his mind about the myth that Al Gore said he invented the Internet. Consider the twists and turns in Weisberg’s writing on the matter
documented by Jamison Foser of Media Matters:

Slate.com's Jacob Weisberg, for example, took
a familiar shot at Gore, writing this week
that “Al Gore claimed he invented the
Internet.” Weisberg has apparently forgotten that Gore never claimed to
have invented the Internet. Either that, or he's lying, because it
certainly isn't the case that Weisberg never knew the truth. After all,
Weisberg himself wrote on September 30, 2004:

A big element of
the GOP's superior skill is the technique it has refined for depicting Democratic
candidates in terms of a simple, troubling vice — and then reinforcing that portrayal
relentlessly and pervasively. In 2000, the Bush team did Al Gore in with the
charge that Gore was prone to boastful exaggeration. At first, this seemed a pretty
weird and marginal critique. Who cares if a politician exaggerates his
accomplishments — don't
they all do that? What's more, many of the
specific attacks were baseless. Gore never really took credit for inventing the
Internet. He didn't really claim to have been raised on a union
lullaby that hadn't yet been written when he was a baby. A number of Gore's
other infamous howlers were equally dubious.

Interestingly, Weisberg's
memory seems to fade in and out. During the 1999-2000 presidential campaign,
when Al Gore was a candidate, Weisberg accused him of “brag[ging]
about pioneering the Internet” and reported that Bush mocked Gore for “claiming to
have invented” the Internet — without bothering to point out that the
charge was false.

In 2004, with Gore out of the
spotlight, Weisberg told the truth: “Gore never really took credit for
inventing the Internet.”

Now, in 2007, with Gore receiving
widespread attention and credit for his work on global warming — and with more
than a few people urging him to run for president — the inconvenient truth
that “Gore never really took credit for inventing the Internet” has
apparently faded from Weisberg's memory. Now, Weisberg flatly states: “Al Gore
claimed he invented the Internet.” He must just have forgotten. Either
that, or he's lying.

It’s fascinating how the conventional wisdom reestablishes itself in people’s minds. How could Weisberg forget that the Gore myth had been debunked?