SUTHERLAND HAS FUN AT GORE'S EXPENSE

A lighter moment of the convention was the introduction of Vice President Al Gore by Frank Sutherland, editor of the Nashville Tennessean. Gore worked with Sutherland at the Tennessean in the early 1970s, providing ample material.

Along with vintage photos, Sutherland showed the reporter's first front-page story - on Hillbilly Days. But one of his first assignments was on the obit desk.

"He was indoctrinated into the newsroom in traditional Tennessean fashion. Reporter Jerry Thompson phoned in an obit to Gore. It was for a fellow named Trebla Erog, which, of course, is Albert Gore spelled backwards. It was a fine obit."

The vice president had his own version of the story. "Late one night while I was doing obituaries, the phone rang, and it was an obituary for Mr. Erog, a Swedish gynecologist from Carthage, Tenn., my hometown. ... He was a member of B'nai B'rith and the Knights of Columbus - he was a joiner."

Gore took down the obit and turned it in. A half-hour later, the phone rang.

"Tragically and interestingly, the doctor's wife had, upon seeing the corpse, died in the funeral home. Rather than preparing a dry obit of Mrs. Erog, I smelled a larger news story that could have been - instead of Hillbilly Days - my first front-page story.

Later he heard about the Erogs' children's accident. "Later, news of the tragedy that befell (them) as they raced across the bridge in the car confirmed my initital instinct that this was a big story."

Craig Branson is publications director of ASNE.