Gore to Teach Journalism at Columbia

Al Gore has signed up for his first job since handing over the keys to the vice president’s office: He will teach a graduate-level journalism class at New York’s Columbia University.

Gore will teach a course called “Covering National Affairs in the Information Age,” which will look at politics from the perspective of politicians and journalists, the university said in a statement Wednesday.

The former vice president will join the Columbia staff as a visiting professor in February and has committed to give six to eight lectures a semester for at least one semester, and possibly two.

“Al Gore is an incomparable resource for our students and others at this university,” said Tom Goldstein, dean of the journalism school. “From his unique perspective, students will see how the government and media intersect.”

Gore was a reporter at the Tennessean in Nashville for three years in the 1970s and was also an Army journalist. He has long held an interest in evolving information technologies. During his election campaign against George W. Bush, Gore earned a reputation for avoiding news conferences with national reporters while his press aides steered information to the major news organizations in hopes of winning front-page play.

Gore’s spokesmen did not immediately return calls for comment Wednesday.

Columbia’s journalism faculty learned of Gore’s new job in a memo distributed by Goldstein.

“This is incredible for us and for any student studying journalism here,” one journalism professor, Sreenath Sreenivasan, said in a telephone interview from New York. “He brings his perspective from one of the most interesting elections in history, and that will be part of the course.”

“He has the ultimate insider’s perspective,” Sreenivasan said. “He has stories that no one else could tell.”

Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism administers the Pulitzer Prize, journalism’s top honor.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Joseph I. Lieberman, Gore’s running mate, said the Connecticut senator is actively exploring setting up a special committee that would provide funds for him to campaign across the country and remain in the national political spotlight.

“He is interested in doing this,” spokesman Dan Gerstein confirmed Wednesday night. Lieberman and his aides, after serious discussions, are working out details of how the fund-raising committee would operate.

The senator is considered a potential presidential contender for 2004. Though it is still early, polls are being taken listing possible contenders, and candidates are already traveling to key states.

Gerstein could not give details about the committee but said the senator likes the idea because “he has certainly developed some very strong relationships with Democrats around the country.”

He wants the committee help because “he’s committed to building on these relationships and helping the Democratic candidates get elected and ideally help our party retake Congress.”

Gerstein would not speculate about 2004. “It’s way too early to be talking beyond next year. His focus is on re-integrating to the Senate.”