Today Show Implies FNC Hid News of Cheney Beer: Transcript Proves Otherwise

Today Show/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

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by Mark Finkelstein

February 16, 2006 - 07:29

An unsuspecting viewer watching this morning's Today show would have thought that Fox News failed to disclose that in his interview by Brit Hume yesterday, VP Cheney acknowledged having a beer at lunch on the day of the shooting incident.

But when it comes to the MSM, it pays to be 'suspecting.'

Here's how NBC White House reporter Kelly O'Donnell artfully chose her words:

"The official White House transcript of the interview shows Cheney said 'I had a beer at lunch.' Fox News did not show that particular clip during Brit Hume's program."

Having watched the Hume/Cheney interview, I was jarred by O'Donnell's statement since I was certain that I had heard reference to the mid-day beer. And sure enough, the interview transcript confirms it:

Brit Hume:

"The Vice-President said he had one beer at lunch, but the afternoon hunt began a couple hours later."

So Hume and Fox News did indeed inform its viewers of the facts, but chose to have Hume report them rather than playing the Cheney clip. Yet the clear inference from the Today show story was that Fox News failed to disclose the lunch-time beer.

If anyone is hiding facts from viewers, it is NBC News and the Today show.

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I doubt Cheney was inebriated from one beer he drank two hours earlier. That being said no one should hunt drunk. I will not hunt with a drunk. It gives us all a bad name and is a very stupid thing to do.

[dirtboy]

2) If he had been in Washington doing his job,

Cheney has two constitutional jobs: preside over the Senate (and cast tie-breaking votes if needed), and be ready to become president. His "job" does not include any other real activities, other than what the president may decided to ask him to do.

I've been critical of the delay in notifying the press. But it's absurd to think that, because Cheney was quail hunting on a Saturday, that the nation's business and security was somehow affected.

[StarFan]

"The official White House transcript of the interview shows Cheney said 'I had a beer at lunch.' Fox News did not show that particular clip during Brit Hume's program."

I wasn't sure who reported it this morning but it certainly stopped me in my tracks when I heard it. They will clutch at any straw to make this bigger than it is even with the public ho humming it. For Joe Klein to tell Scarborough that the press is over reaching and should stop, speaks volumes.