By Staff
We learned more about the me-me-media than about Vice President Dick Cheney from his Feb. 11 quail hunting mishap at the 50,000-acre Armstrong Ranch.
Cheney's disdain for the media and arrogance in general are well-documented, which is perhaps why the media piled on so horribly, taking what could have been a minor story and fanning it into a week-long avalanche of negativity.
You knew “The Daily Show” would have a field day, but what was Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank thinking?
Milbank appeared on MSNBC to provide measured analysis of the fallout - in a blaze orange stocking hat and matching reflective vest to emulate a hunter in danger of being gunned down by Cheney.
Dana, leave the fake news to The Onion or to Jon Stewart's capable correspondents.
Print media has enough credibility problems without you making news, colorfully compared to a “Hooters parking attendant” and a “colorblind ‘Where's Waldo' wannabe.”
Meanwhile, brave journalists around the world are targeted by suicide bombers, threatened with “hate crimes” prosecution and tossed in jail for defending a free press from Islam.
Defenders of press freedom abroad were arrested and shut down for publishing the Mohammed cartoons printed in Denmark last Sept. 30, which the U.S. media won't touch.
Can't say I was surprised the vice president had been drinking or that he had to be issued a warning citation for breaking Texas hunting law by failing to obtain the $7 stamp necessary to shoot upland game birds.
The official Texas Parks and Wildlife Department report found “hunter's judgment factor” caused the accident when Cheney sprayed with shotgun pellets Austin attorney Harry Whittington, 78, who stepped from the hunting line to retrieve a downed bird.
Whittington didn't have a stamp, either, although he wore a bright orange safety vest.
Katharine Armstrong said Whittington was in tall grass and thick brush, making it difficult for Cheney to see him.
President Bush was informed before 8 p.m., about an hour after the accident happened.
But the White House didn't disclose it until the afternoon of the 12th - and then only in response to press questions.
By then the national me-me-media, accustomed to being hand-fed, had been scooped by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times Web site.
Feb. 14 Whittington returned to intensive care after suffering a mild heart attack when a shotgun pellet in his chest traveled to his heart. Cheney fired 7 1/2 shot just under a tenth of an inch in diameter from a 28-gauge shotgun.
Kenedy County sheriff's investigators didn't question anyone until at least 14 hours after the shooting. The Secret Service was traveling with Cheney, who accepted full responsibility Feb. 15 for “one of the worst days of my life.”
Bypassing the national media at the White House so the ranch owner could phone a friendly local reporter the next day “made good sense,” the vice president decided. “I thought that made good sense because you get as accurate a story as possible from somebody who knew and understood hunting. And I thought that was the right call. … I still do.”
A vice president shooting someone last happened in 1804 in a duel when Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton.
President Bush on Feb. 16 said Cheney handled the matter “just fine.”
Bush was likely grateful Cheney had, in the words of The Associated Press, “distracted attention from Bush's agenda.”
Some other worthy stories got overshadowed:
Federal auditors found that the government squandered millions of dollars in Katrina aid, handing out $2,000 debit cards to people who provided phony Social Security numbers. The Government Accounting Office (GAO) report found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid based their requests on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers or false addresses and names. Recipients used their debit cards intended for food and shelter for a $450 tattoo, an $1,100 diamond engagement ring and $150 worth of products at “Condoms and Go.” Never mind the thousands of unused trailer homes still parked in Hope, Ark.
A 520-page House report, “A Failure of Initiative,” criticized Bush for failing to get involved in the unfolding Katrina crisis, which killed more than 1,300 people, caused tens of billions of dollars in damage and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
New photos emerged Feb. 15 showing U.S. soldiers abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003.
The White House rejected a 54-page United Nations report Feb. 16 that concluded the United States should close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, immediately to end violent treatment that amounts to torture.
U.S. military spending for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will rise to $115 billion for this year, and almost $400 billion since fighting started, under an emergency request the White House submitted Feb. 16.
The IRS reported Feb. 14 that taxpayers shortchanged the government by $345 billion in 2001, with the biggest problem, $109 billion, failure to report income from business ventures.
That means more than 16 percent of the money owed that year went uncollected.