Posted on 02/15/2006 6:07:41 AM PST by LavaDog
Once it was clear that the man sprinkled with birdshot would survive, Vice President Cheney's hunting accident was widely expected to become a late-night comedian's bonanza, a frenzy like Wal-Mart shoppers scrambling for $29 DVD players.
As "Today" replayed the comedian clips on Tuesday, NBC's Matt Lauer asked, "Had a feeling that was coming, didn't you?" Katie Couric replied: "Well, I mean when you heard the story you just knew they were gonna go crazy with it, so they did."
With apologies to the Cheney friend who received the pellet facial, the incident was funny. Now we learn the vice president received a warning citation from a Texas Ranger for not buying a $7 hunting stamp in advance. As a friend e-mailed me, "Where else can you shoot a lawyer in the face with a shotgun and get off with just a warning?"
What really shocked people was the way our Cheney-hating press corps went crazy with it. The Big Three networks aired 34 stories in the first 48 hours of evening and morning newscasts.
They treated this not as a mishap, and then a punchline, but as a brewing national scandal. The 18-hour delay in alerting the media! The failure to pay a $7 hunting stamp! "Questions remain"! "White House under fire"! "Growing political fallout"! The focus of the story quickly shifted from an embarrassed Cheney to the shamelessly egotistical press corps.
Look no further for a poster boy for egotism than NBC White House reporter David Gregory, who was captured in an untelevised morning "gaggle" in the briefing room Monday morning yelling at Bush spokesman Scott McClellan. First, he accused the spokesman of "ducking and weaving," leading McClellan to quip that he should emote later, when the cameras were on.
"Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras!'' Gregory shot back. "Don't be a jerk to me personally when I'm asking you a serious question!'' McClellan said, "You don't have to yell," and Gregory replied, "I will yell! If you want to use that podium to try to take shots at me personally, which I don't appreciate, then I will raise my voice, because that's wrong!''
In how many ways is this a joke? These reporters take shots at McClellan and the rest of the administration on a daily basis, in the briefing room, and in their news coverage. Some of those shots are quite personal. But how dare the president's spokesman lecture them! The incivility of it all!
Then came the televised briefing on Monday afternoon. It's been a while since the cable networks aired one live, but it's not every day that the vice president caps his friend, so they made an exception. In retrospect, I bet they wish they hadn't.
These reporters looked like a "Saturday Night Live" skit with the goofy questions they asked. They started with huffing and puffing about their own territorial prerogatives, that the survival of America is hanging by a thread, and that thread is the press, which must be updated minute by minute.
Terence Hunt of the Associated Press insisted, "Isn't there a public disclosure requirement that should have kicked in immediately?" (Quick answer: There is no "requirement," period.) Gregory protested, "The vice president of the United States accidentally shoots a man and he feels that it's appropriate for a ranch owner who witnessed this to tell the local Corpus Christi newspaper, and not the White House press corps at large, or notify the public in a national way?" Several questioners fussed over how it was not "appropriate" for a "private citizen" to alert the media.
The outrage was palpable. How dare the Corpus Christi Caller-Times get the scoop before we did! We are the national news media, and we must not be overlooked on a major breaking story on quail hunting. The divas were denied, and they were cranky.
From there, it just got sillier and sillier, with questions like: "Is it proper for the vice president to offer his resignation, or has he offered his resignation?" And: "Scott, under Texas law, is this kind of accidental shooting a possible criminal offense?" By this time, you just wanted to buy McClellan a beer.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, former vice president Al Gore went to Saudi Arabia and denounced the U.S. government for committing "terrible abuses" against Arabs after 9/11, that Arabs had been "indiscriminately rounded up" and held in "unforgivable" conditions. Gore made no mention of the "terrible abuses" the Saudi tyrants commit, perhaps because it would be unseemly to insult his host on his home turf. So instead he used his host's home turf to insult his own country. No one asked about that at the White House. Most media outlets had no time or space for it. They were too busy covering the far more important Dick Cheney Quail Shooting Scandal.
The latest MSM headlines are now "The Cheney shooting victim."
Crazy Toon Town Al had watched the movie, The Seige, with Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington, on the flight over from the States.
His therapist called him to snap him out of his delirium....but it was too late!
MSM stories are now on the same page: "Cheney shooting victim."
BBC News Cheney shooting victim has heart attack
Channel 4 News, UK - 3 hours ago
... instead. News of the shooting only came out on Sunday as neither the White House nor Mr Cheney's staff disclosed it. Despite being ...
Cheney shooting victim suffers heart attack Mail & Guardian Online
Cheney shooting victim in intensive care after heart attack New Zealand Herald
Cheney shooting victim moved to the ICU Independent Online
Malaysia Star - Sydney Morning Herald - all 4,113 related »
Newstalk ZB Cheney Shooting Victim Suffers Heart-Attack
Newstalk ZB, New Zealand - 18 hours ago
The man hospitalized after being shot by Vice President Cheney has suffered a "minor heart-attack," according to a hospital spokesman. ...
CNN International Cheney shooting victim has heart attack
WBIR-TV, TN - 19 hours ago
Doctors in Texas say some of the birdshot that Vice President Cheney accidentally fired at a fellow hunter over the weekend has lodged in the man's heart ...
White House Joked About Cheney Shooting--Before Victim's Heart ... Editor & Publisher
Cheney shooting victim has 'silent heart attack'; VP calls WLNE-TV (ABC6)
Greenfield: A political Rorschach test CNN
Toronto Star - San Francisco Chronicle - all 64 related »
Cheney shooting victim Harry Whittington could die, suffers heart ...
Sports911.com, FL - 18 hours ago
... 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a ... The victim, Harry Whittington, was immediately moved back to the intensive care unit for ...
Cheney shooting victim suffers heart attack
Reuters - 19 hours ago
HOUSTON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The Texas lawyer accidentally shot by Vice President Dick Cheney during a weekend quail hunt suffered a minor heart attack on ...
A Barrage of Editorial Cartoons Address Cheney Shooting Episode
Editor & Publisher - 19 hours ago
... Mike Luckovich of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Creators Syndicate shows the vice president with his shooting victim. An unrepentant Cheney says: "An ...
Standard-Speaker Former GOP White House Press Secretaries And PR Experts Blast ...
The Moderate Voice - 8 hours ago
... the uproar would fade if and when the victim, Texas attorney ... Most experts agreed, however, that Cheney should have announced the shooting Saturday evening ...
White House under fire in Cheney shooting accident Reuters
White House defends delayed announcement of Cheney's shooting NewKerala.com
Orange morning gives way to darker afternoon SouthCoastToday.com
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - Yahoo! News - all 122 related »
SouthCoastToday.com White House jokes about Cheney shooting accident
EiTB, Spain - 17 hours ago
... decided that the best way to deal with Vice President Dick Cheney's shooting accident is to ... The department gave Cheney and the victim, prominent Republican ...
Controversy Swirls Around Cheney CBS 3
CHENEY SHOOTS, BUSH DUCKS. New Republic
Dick Cheney, mighty hunter Trenton Times
CBS 13 - all 197 related »
Shooting victim suffers setback
DetNews.com, MI - 4 hours ago
... in Texas said Tuesday that 78-year-old Harry Whittington had a birdshot pellet in or touching his heart after being shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a ...
OPEN SEASON ON SILENT DICK AFTER HIS VICTIM HAS HEART ATTACK
New York Post, NY - 5 hours ago
... Cheney refused to comment publicly for a third day — drawing broadsides from ... unaware that doctors were performing a heart procedure on the shooting victim...
My dream is Dick Cheney holding a press conference on the matter with the "elite" White House Press Corps and standing there with his .28 shotgun pointed at them the entire time.
Not too long ago, I watched the press club give Ted Kennedy a wild standing ovation as a hero. A drunk who covered up his killing of a young girl.
"The outrage was palpable. How dare the Corpus Christi Caller-Times get the scoop before we did! We are the national news media, and we must not be overlooked on a major breaking story on quail hunting. The divas were denied, and they were cranky."
Exactly
The quail frequently survive these shooting incidents.
Good job with that list. Wonder what the lamestream media would do with a real story? (oh, wait, we already have many examples. Reid-Abramhoff, Chappaquidick Fats, Chuckie Schumer, etc.)
Speaking of which, has anyone been watching Fox? Mainly John Gibson.
Is it me, or has he flipped out. One hour of repetitious Cheney, Whittaker updates, that aren't updates, and Entwistle updates that are ten days old.
Were it not for John advertizing his radio show, there would be no entertainment.
(I posted this on an earlier thread)...Let's get hypothetical. Minutes after the shooting mishap, a full-fledged press conference is called. How would that have been reported? "Before some of the wounded mans' closest relatives had even been notified, the White House spin machine was in full damage control. In a shocking display of arrogance, protecting the reputation of the Vice President was more important than waiting for a complete medical evaluation of the injured lawyer. CBS News interviewed the lawyer's second cousin, who first heard about the accident on TV....."
The press secretary should come out with a list of much more important stories the press should be covering. I'll start it off...
1) Why is the MSM so biased in its coverage, especially as it sees newspaper ciruculation rates plunging and viewers leaving enmasse?
2) Why is Harry Reid refusing to talk about his connections with Abramhoff?
3) Why does the ACLU take a stand against every anti-terror tool the President and Congress have proposed or put in play?
Continue on from there, Scott, and please call their bluff when it comes to not getting the scoop first.
How quickly the LSM moves from "Scooter" Libbey to "Skeet" Whittington.
It sounded like McClellan was getting a bit po'd at tht last predd conference. About time.
If it were up to me, I would quit giving briefings to that bunch of spoiled brats or feed them a bunch of lies and let them run with it. Then tell them later that it was not what I said
The whole network has 'flipped out.'
Jeez. Hillary killed Vince Foster and it didn't generate this amount of press coverage!
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