I can’t really say I’m overly impressed with the media coverage of the incident involving Cheney and the accidental shooting this past weekend. The facts were clearly released to the public fairly soon after it happened, there was no attempt at cover-up, and the story was very understandable. Had Cheney’s office called the press the moment it happened (the avoidance of which seems to be what the White House press corps is in a huff about) it would have fed the major news channels for at least 24 hours. With the 24 hour news cycle, the first reports would have been about how Cheney shot somebody — no context, no background — and then details would have filtered in while analysts breathlessly debated who might have been at fault, how the victim was doing medically, what the political impact would be, et cetera. Doubtless some of the facts as they came in would be wrong, and we could well have ended up with headlines like “VP Cheney Accidentally Kills Hunting Partner.” Nationally known reporters and news anchors who are paid more for their looks than for their journalistic abilities would speculate (yet again) about topics they do not understand, and would snidely comment about how this was the sort of thing that one should EXPECT from the horrible Bush administration. There would undoubtedly be complaints that the Vice President was not releasing enough information, and articles would be written about this ‘secretive administration.’ The media would swarm the poor victim and his family, and they would lose all privacy for the rest of the time the news channels were milking the story — and frankly, if you’ve just been shot, you need to lose your peace, quiet, and privacy like you need (another) hole in your head.
Naturally, Democrats have taken this opportunity to attack Bush and Cheney about their ‘secretiveness’ and their lack of interest in going to the media. They’re looking for any possible political hay they could make out of this — anything to help them win back a couple more house seats in the 2006 elections. The media, on the other hand, is interested in feeding the voracious monster that is the 24 hour news cycle, and see an unfortunate event that happened to Cheney (in his capacity as a private person, no less) as the ideal way to do it. It would be more understandable if he had accidentally shot a head of state that he was hunting with — that actually has something to do with his job — but this endless fascination with anything to do with important figures is an attempt to appeal to nothing higher than the public’s prurient interest.
Cheney was right to avoid that by waiting to release the information.