Just Your Average Vice-Presidential Shooting
Call me unoriginal. I have to comment on this story.
Vice President goes quail hunting with friends. He accidentally shoots friend. Friend has a heart attack. VP gets him medical help.
Hunting involves risk. According the International Hunter Educational Association, there are about seven hundred nonfatal hunting accidents each year in the United States and Canada and about seventy-five fatal hunting accidents each year. This was one of them. Was Mr. Cheney irresponsible or reckless in his hunting? Apparently. Did he drive his car off a bridge in a drunken stupor, kill somebody, go home, sleep it off, and not tell anyone until the next day? Not quite.
For the record, Mr. Whittington was not shot in the face, contrary to reports by Jon Stewart (via Dale). He was wounded in the shoulder, neck, and chest. That's much better than the face.
VP decides not to tell anyone in the national media for 18 hours.
Being a Vice President involves risk. Every little thing you do will be scrutinized by the world. As the Vice President, you need to anticipate that and take precautions to keep yourself from looking stupid. Shooting someone makes you look stupid. You can't prepare for that. Not telling the media for eighteen hours makes you look stupid. With a little foresight, you can probably nip that one in the bud. As pure as your motives—to give the family some time to deal with it privately—may be (emphasis on may), you must anticipate the media backlash that will result from shooting someone.
Media flips out on VP.
Being a conservative involves risk. The media will criticize everything you do. The major networks' hours after the story broke were filled with grim-faced reporters bringing up-to-the-minute reports on the incident above title bars screaming, "Cheney Shooting." Funny, I didn't see a single report on the Islamic mobs rioting (Did you even know the riots are continuing?) and burning embassies. But I saw hours of pontification about the meaning and truth behind this accident. It has links to the War in Iraq, domestic wiretapping, and social security reform, according to some reports I've seen and heard. Really, is the world so boring we have to spend this much time on a hunting accident? Maybe ABC would like to know we are at war. Perhaps we need to leak it to NBC that the adherents of the fastest-growing religion in the world have killed ten people already in riots over a Danish newpaper cartoon. Oh, and should anyone tell CBS that former VP Al Gore was paid by the Bin Laden family to speak at a "we still hate America" rally in Saudia Arabia?
Conservatives flip out on media.
Being a talk-show host involves risk. Like the risk of self-incrimination. I listened to the condensed, one hour forty-seven minute commercial-free Sean Hannity podcast from the day the story broke. He spent the better part of an hour criticizing the media for spending so much time on the story.
So that's my take. Plenty of fault to go around. I can't wait to see what life-changing event is going to consume the media next week. The news is so engrossing I'm beginning to read the Tantalizing Tidbits. Every meal.
At 1:51 AM,
Actually, there was some bird shot in the facial region, altough most of it was in the shoulder and neck. And you forgot to mention that one stray pellet that migrated to his heart. But saying that the sitting Vice President of the United States shot a man in the face is so much easier than saying that the sitting Vice President of the United States shot a man in the face, neck, shoulder, and chest.
At 3:50 PM,
Are you bashing Hannity? I need to know this, I won't take it well.
By the way, how could you not talk to me about the fact that my future Gov. was on the show a few days ago? How could you fail to mention the fact that a man I want to vote this fall just to simply oust the current idiot located in Harrisburg now (I'm telling you, Rendell even looks like Stalin if you look close enough) and a Republican candidate I know nothing about was on the show I listen to so much?
Actually I was really disapointed about the whole thing. 10 minute long interview, and I still know nothing about Lynn Swan, other than the fact that he thinks Ed Rendell is a schumck. Well, at least he thinks the same way I do.
At 2:22 PM,
I agree that the whole "Cheney shooting" story was blown out of proportion. (no pun intended) At least it's finally begun to settle down.
What, you don't always read the Tantalizing Tidbits? But they're so tantalizing...