The media's Cheney hunt

Town Hall | Feb 15, 2006 | Brent Bozell

[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.

[1Old Pro]

These reporters looked like a "Saturday Night Live" skit with the goofy questions they asked.

No kidding. There was only ONE THING MISSING from the skit.

Where was Ted Kennedy making a fuss about waiting 24 hours before reporting a crime???

[Willie Green]

With apologies to the Cheney friend who received the pellet facial, the incident was funny.

Yes, it was funny when we were led to believe that it wasn't any more serious than a "facial".
Now it becomes legitimate to ask why the gravity of the situation was initially downplayed.

[Colonel_Flagg]

As usual, Mark Steyn said it best:

"Already, NBC's David Gregory, the George Clooney of the press corps, has been huffin' an' a-puffin' all over the TV demanding answers - multiple answers - about why he had to wait 18 hours to hear about the accident. Who cares? A "sinister cover-up" has to boil down to more than not giving David Gregory a press release. And, given that the media's spent the last two weeks telling the public why they don't need to see these Danish cartoons, it's hard to take them seriously as sudden converts to the public's right to know every detail, if only when it comes to minor hunting accidents."

[small voice in the wilderness]

lol! And if Cheney wanted to make some MSM punks p*ss their pants, he would call a press conference. And when they're all smugly assembled with their lists of grievances held in their sweaty little palms, he would yell "PULL!!!. Then smile that great smile of his. Watch them scatter like, well, like quail flushing from the brush.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Of course, if David Gregory were any sort of a real reporter, he would have worked his beat sources to learn of the story himself.

[G.Mason]

Re:"The whole network has flipped out".

I guess they are just emulating the rest of the world.

Sad. I used to enjoy a few before dinner cocktails and listen / watch Fox.

Now I'm relegated to the "Golden Girl" re-runs, which I never even would watch twenty years ago when they were new.

I would say that Fox is just above that old decrepit hag that talks about penis rings and dildoes, though.

I stumbled across her one day while channel surfing and haven't had the yearning for sexual relations since.

That was two weeks ago, and I am beginning to worry. ;)

[G.Mason]

" ... Of course, if David Gregory were any sort of a real reporter, he would have worked his beat sources to learn of the story himself."

The only "beat sources" David Gregory has are sent to him by his buddy Larry Flynt.

[ohioWfan]

ROFLOL! That show was SOOOO disgusting!

Maybe you should look for reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond or Cosby........might keep your sex drive alive........the Huxtables were pretty hot. :)

[Sender]

The ever-dependable Mike Luckovich, bastard child of the Atlanta left, delivers this:

[ohioWfan]

Now it becomes legitimate to ask why the gravity of the situation was initially downplayed.

It wasn't. The situation was dealt with medically from the get go. The first Doc thought he should be treated and released. It was only later that the bird shot moved and caused a more serious medical problem.

I see conspiracy paranoia does not exist only on the left.....

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>that Arabs had been "indiscriminately rounded up"


No AL, that was a Democratic President rounding people up. Those people being rounded up weren't Arab either; they were Japanese.

[G.Mason]

Thanks for the steer. I'll try them.

I'ts for sure "Maud" ain't cutting it, though Blanche is looking better! ;)

[johnny7]

Thank God we weren't hit by al Qaeda... I doubt if they would've broken away.

[Texas Jack]

The MSM continue to marginalize themselves.

How can anyone take them seriously after seeing the level of gross ignorance on display with each reporting of this incidence?

I thought hurricane Katrina was their low-water mark, but this has to take the prize for the most drummed-up ballyhoo about nothing.

In the future, just remember, the same level of incompetence is on display with every story they air.

[ER Doc]

But the first doc who made a statement was obviously as wrong as possible. Actually, the first doc, presumably one of my colleagues in emergency medicine, had him flown by helicopter from the small local hospital to the regional trauma center in Corpus Christi. He was in the trauma intensive care unit for three days, then moved back to the ICU almost immediately after he was moved out, when they realized he had a heart arrhythmia and found the heart attack. Obviously, it was a lot more serious from the start than the public statements were admitting.

[ER Doc]

Fine; so wait for a full evaluation, after he was flown to the trauma center and admitted to the ICU. That was around 9pm central time. Any complaints about privacy would have come and gone, but the conspiracy theorists wouldn't have nearly as much to work with. The way Mr. Cheney has handled this has been a disaster for us.

[arthurus]

Press briefings to that crew should be conducted by a janitor's assistant entering the room and looking around as if counting the house. Then he should leave followed by a 15 year old entering and passing around handouts and saying, "thanks for coming, the conference is over and we need to set up the room for ping-pong in 5 minutes.

[ohioWfan]

He was clearly wrong, but it was still the first medical impression given.

The facts as presented by the medical staff yesterday were that the bird shot had MOVED. That doesn't back up your conspiracy theory.

They also said that the patient was expected to fully recover.

There is no there there.

[arthurus]

Fox News was, for a while, the only TV I looked at because it was on at my workplace. Now that TV has been removed and I am back to my total TV abstinence. I don't miss it. Over several months it seemed Fox edged closer and closer to MSM and tabloid style.

[ohioWfan]

btw, welcome to Free Republic. Long time conservative are you?