Posted on 02/14/2006 5:31:24 PM PST by jmc1969
Fleischer, who was Bush's first press secretary - from 2001 to 2003 - told E&P that Cheney's accidental shooting of Texas attorney Harry Whittington on Saturday during a hunting trip should not have taken nearly a day to be reported.
"It would have been better if the vice president and/or his staff had come out last Saturday night or first thing Sunday morning and announced it," he said during a phone interview Tuesday. "It could have and should have been handled differently."
But Fleischer also took a jab at the reporting frenzy surrounding the story, saying most Americans are not as focused on it as the White House press corps. "The press is largely right on the issue--but it can be right and go too far," he added.
He also said that if he were still in the White House, he would urge the vice president's office to take some of the heat off Bush's staff: "I think you go to the vice president and say, 'you need to be handling this.'"
Fleischer's comments came just hours after Marlin Fitzwater, who served as press secretary to Bush's father and Ronald Reagan, also criticized Cheney, telling E&P he was "appalled" at the response to the incident.
(Excerpt) Read more at editorandpublisher.com ...
First of all, if each and every reporter had been personally contacted by Cheney himself, it would not have reduced their rabid dog frenzy about this story one iota, if anything, catering to the massive egos like little Davy Gregory and his pals would (in their minds) suggest that the Vice President was in a position of weakness and as "friendly" as they have been to this Administration, that would only encourage them to attack with even greater ferocity.
Second, no matter what the Vice President and/or his staff did or said, the White House Press Corpse would still have been hammering McClellan on this story, because there are ripe possibilities for a rewarding game of "gotcha" and "Prez said/Vice-Prez said", and they would like nothing better than to instigate even minor disagreements between the President and his VP, either personally, or at the staff level. Don't we know by now that the press views this Administration as their own personal enemy? They do!
Ari, Marlin and past press secretaries (oh my, did I forget David Gergen?!? *gasp*) need to STFU because they are not privy to what is or is not going on behind the scenes, McClellan is making the best of a bad situation, and while he isn't my idea of a great press secretary, he's got the job, and he's doing the best he can.
The only thing Vice President Cheney needs to do, is to send the same message to these howling hounds of media-hell as he sent to Senator Leaky Leahy back in 2003(?), which was "Go F--K Yourselves".
Third and finally, the most important issue here is the recovery of Harry Whittington, this was a terrible accident, and fortunately nobody was killed.
Unlike in July 1969.
He's right, but given the current situation, he should know to keep quiet.
You're right .. the WH should have had a presser before anything was really known at the time and let the media hound the hospital with stupid questions and others trying to sneak in the hospital to try and get a scoop
Precisely. It would have been (marginally) better, but without a time machine, what's his point?
hopefully the mods will pull your post, Ari is married in case you didn't know.
He started it.
cry baby.
Choking on your 7th viewing of Brokeback Mountain?
Ari is a standup dude who's only telling the truth.
THIS WAS DUMB.
The idea that the WH didn't get in front of this because they were protecting the hospital from the press isn't going to fly.
That's exactly their aim, Mo1.
Bring down VP Cheney, no matter the means.
They're despicable.
I'm with you.....The heck with the press.
Frankly I think most "R" members of both houses...should boycott all the talk shows. Just place them on ignore.......
FWIW---
I'm sure you'll forgive me. Colleges are not the first place I look for guidance, nor are journalists the place I look for truth.
Thank you for the most sane, thougtful and lucid post on this thread!
Shut up Ari, this isn't helping.
neither of those points has anything to do with the underlying story about how an agressive media strategy, saved Johnson and Johnson.
Evidently......no comment.......is too much to expect from those no longer on the stage!
Absolutely disgraceful. Former WH press secs acting like democrats.
Psychotic muslim mutants are preparing to slaughter us and all we can do is focus on some insipidly stupid third-rate accident that no thinking person should give a sh*t about!! Now I know all of us would like to catch Davey "Girlie-Man" Gregory in an elevator and tune up this pantiwaist dweeb until his face resembled a Mack Truck road kill, but enough! Our first enemy is the Religion of Peace. After we kill them we can start working on the liberal socialist communist media,...sort of a fun celebration after the war!
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