Thursday, February 16, 2006
Hunting down those who keep secrets
Our veep certainly has been a target this week, huh? Rightully so. The media have continued to hunt him down, asking questions about the whole shooting incident that left his good friend full of pellets. He told Fox News that he agreed with the strategy to let Katharine Armstrong disclose the shooting accident to a local paper because he thought the story would likely be more accurate if told by someone who understands hunting. Gimme a break! It doesn't take a brainiac to understand that when you're aiming for quail, you don't shoot low. Let's give even those reporters who have never ventured out of the city a little credit for their ability to "get" what happened here. This isn't at all about journalistic accuracy. It's about one more incident of an arrogant politician thinking his "always play it close to the vest" strategy will work every time. I just hope this debacle will serve as a lesson to others that secrecy usually isn't the best way to go.
# posted by Marilynn Mobley @ 8:43 AM 
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Point taken, Steve. Maybe the VP's friend didn't want information released. But details of his condition didn't need to be. All the veep had to do was acknowledge the accident, express regret and move on. Refusing to comment at all added fuel to the fire and made the story much bigger than it might have been otherwise.
I agree that the Washington press corps absolutely goes over the line and can be quite snarky and demanding. But that has been the case since Cheney took office, which is exactly why the VP should have taken action to prevent exactly the kind of reaction he got.
The media are in high defense mode and going for blood. That's not fair nor professional. On the other hand, Cheney should know better than to antagonize them.
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I agree that the Washington press corps absolutely goes over the line and can be quite snarky and demanding. But that has been the case since Cheney took office, which is exactly why the VP should have taken action to prevent exactly the kind of reaction he got.
The media are in high defense mode and going for blood. That's not fair nor professional. On the other hand, Cheney should know better than to antagonize them.
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