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.
What I'm referring to is the whole tone of the discussion of the injuries, from Armstrong's talk about being "peppered" and how Whittington was sitting up, laughing and talking, through all the media talk and the statements by the hospital administrator. The general tone in the media has been to spin this as a minor injury, and it's obvious that it wasn't. I don't know if I'm taking a "shot" at anyone specific (is that really how you meant to say that??) but the public relations around the whole accident has been handled terribly.
I believe Cheney and Whitington (as soon as Whitington is up to it)should hold a joint press conference and open by telling the reporters " Hey! Sh*t happens. We are both alive, still friends and booked for next years quail hunt"..next question?"
You need to come up with some facts to back up your assertions here that we were being deceived about his condition.
The matter was dealt with as it should have been. Whittington was given proper medical attention from the beginning, and the problem with his heart was a result of movement of the birdshot within his chest cavity (the Dr. yesterday verified that the penetration into the chest cavity was not unusual because Whittington is lean).
The original report was that he had been hit in the face, neck and CHEST. There was no mishandling of the "PR" here. The only error here was that the WH Presscorps revealed their infantile behavior in throwing a tantrum that they weren't told soon enough.........and that they haven't shut up since.
(And actually I used the word 'shot' quite deliberately. You're obviously accusing someone of something. Who?)
That's a fact. The press is going to do anything except truly report and dwell upon the important issues. The press sucks, and the longer and worse and more openly it sucks, the more it will become apparent-even to the delusional dumba$$es who still trust it.
Ted Kennedy reputedly has been stopped several times for drunken driving --in the years since Chappaquiddick-- but these incidents have been covered up.
And Chappaquiddick was not the first time a Kennedy caused grievous damage to a young woman in a car accident.
IIRC, Teddy's nephew Joseph Kennedy caused a young girl to become paralyzed for life, after doing "wheelies" in a Jeep in which he was the driver and she was a passenger.
- Did young Joe get a breathalyzer test after this incident?
- Was the accident immediately reported to the national media?
- Did the media bring up young Joe's...er...driving history during his campaigns for his U.S. House seat?
Somehow I believe the answer is 'no' to all of the above questions.
You should be at least a little respectful that his hospital record and times and lab results and all the details should not be the general publics fodder.
This is sickening. It continues with all the supposition if his heart can't handle the stress and there are further complications and he dies and on and on. The medical and surgical experts appearing on MSM and cable shows ..... this frenzy for all his private medical information is completely inappropriate and unprofessional.
Much to do about nothing. Typical press nuts trying to make NEWS instead of reporting facts.
Nothing's been hidden from us, ER. Nothing has been mishandled.
Watch it.
Not doubting you, but do you have a source for that?
On Sunday, when we first heard Whittington was in the ICU, I suspected he was there mainly for privacy reasons.
But when the so-called "heart attack" happened (actually, it wasn't what we usually think of as a "heart attack," but a irregular heart rhythm caused by irritation from the birdshot), I changed my mind.
Sandy Berger
It was on a press update from the Doctor's on Fox. Let me look up a link....
You obviously have some 'issues' here. Go for it. E-mail the White House. Call the hospital. Make the accusations directly to the people who are sure have lied to you. Or better yet, call David Gregory.
Enough of this now. You've made your point here.
All I have is info that the Doc said it in his medical update.
If I find out more, I'll let you know.
press conference of course. I doan need no steeeenkin' spell check!
My hope is the Administration will poke a stick in the White House Press reporters' eye by only issuing press releases to the smallest media outlets in the country.
That would be so damn great, wouldn't it?
He's sitting up, eating a regular diet, ready to get back to work as a lawyer, in ICU for privacy only.
Still no link for you, but audio verification.
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