The mainstream media’s petulance peaked this week after they
disapproved of Vice President Dick Cheney’s notification method
about his hunting accident in Texas. Once again the White House
press corps reminded us that it’s not about the story, or the
victim, but about them.
The usual journalism suspects who always exhibit “objective”
criticism of the Bush administration displayed especially feral
cattiness, and I’m not even talking about the demonstrative David
Gregory of NBC News. No, the think-strained wretches of print did
themselves proud as well.
Stories in the national newspapers linked the alleged disclosure
delay about the unfortunate shooting of his friend, Harry
Whittington, to the following Cheney behavioral peculiarities:
(USA Today)
-His “penchant for secrecy”
-His fight against releasing the “names of oil and gas company
executives who met with the energy task force he headed”
-His failure to hold news conferences or to tell reporters of
his whereabouts
(New York Times)
-Cheney’s “habit of living in his own world in the Bush White
House”
-His “freedom that only a political figure who knows he is in
his last job…can get away with”
-His suspected “fear of leaks”
-His “power center of his own”
(Washington Post)
-Cheney’s “unparalleled autonomy”
-His heavy influence over Iraq policy after the 9/11/01 terror
attacks
-A “string of political embarrassments linked to Cheney,
including not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” and the
indictment of chief of staff Scooter Libby
I don’t know what any of Cheney’s alleged traits and actions,
listed above, has to do with the timing of his hunting accident
disclosure, but the press never needs a clear connection when it
comes to whining about their access to him.
Perhaps most ludicrous is the press’s insistence that this
incident had something to do with Cheney’s alleged “secret”
tendencies. For someone whom the media has depicted as the brains
of the administration, do any of them really believe — or expect
their readers to believe — that the vice president thought
shooting somebody could be kept private? Hence we have a herring
shaded scarlet.
Even sillier is the idea that Cheney should have notified the
press corps immediately and delivered an explanation of the
incident, and of his feelings. Howard Kurtz of the Post
emphasized how long it took the vice president
to show “public regret.” And after disclosure, on Thursday
following his interview with Fox News’ Brit Hume, the papers
universally noted how Cheney accepted responsibility for shooting
Whittington but refused to take blame for not sending his message
boy to the Washington press corps. Meanwhile the New York Times reported that Cheney told
his story to Hume in a “just-the-facts monotone.”
Obviously it’s the enigmatic Cheney’s fault that the media
misunderstand him so much, that after six years they are still
waiting for him to emote.
In the eyes of that press, Cheney’s persistent reticence is
causing real problems between him and the White House. Jim VandeHei
and Peter Baker of the Post claimed the “slow and
unapologetic response…is turning the quail-hunting mishap into a
political liability for the Bush administration.” Susan Page of
USA Today said Cheney is “at the center of a White House
firestorm,” which “is an unwelcome interruption at a time
(President Bush’s) approval rating has slipped to 39 percent in the
latest USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll.”
And under the headline, “Handling of Mishap Creates Strain in
the White House,” New York Times reporter David Sanger
wrote that Cheney’s “habit of living in his own world….had
backfired since the accident in Texas on Saturday.”
Leave it to the White House press corps to have the audacity to
blame Cheney’s information management, and not their own badgering of presidential Press Secretary Scott
McClellan, as the source of “tension” and “strain” in the
administration. David Gregory’s antics alone could have made
anybody in the room blow a gasket.
Even more arrogant is that they think their opinion of how they
are handled directly correlates to the Bush administration’s
approval ratings.
Kind of makes me wish that, despite Hume’s respected reputation,
Cheney had done his television interview with KZTV News in Corpus
Christi instead.
