What do you do with a drunken draft dodger?
I'm watching Brit Hume right now pretend that he didn't do a "softball" interview with Dick Cheney. Brit Hume is the type of guy who would run over his child's cat in the driveway and blame the child for allowing the creature to walk around. If he plays "hardball" with you, you know it. Of all the Big Dub apologists/revisionists over at Fox News Network he is probably one of the top three most honest, but that isn't saying a whole lot. He is still a brilliant spin artist and the Cheney interview couldn't have been more softball without actually involving the use of a softball. But then nobody is going to voluntarily have Cheney throw anything at them.
The way most of the media had been all over the tremendous 20 hour wait until they got the news, I thought they were understanding the truth of the matter; that there was a deliberate delay and some reason for it, but the way the White House press corp has gone into hysterics because they didn't get the first call, it's all a little disheartening. I find it difficult to understand that with all the unseemly things that Dick "Dick" Cheney has been involved with over the years, and the parts of this case that there is no chance to recover at this time, (such as whether the delay was about sobering Cheney up); the locus of the hysteria is the ego of the press corp being bruised that they didn't hear it first. Never mind that the Veep was likely rather impaired and was sequestered for sobering up is the mostly likely scenario; they're crying crocodile tears because he cheated on them by allowing the story to surface through local media. The missing hours is the story here, but egotism is getting in the way.
Initial reports that there - "was no drinking" - eventually changed to - "there was beer in the cooler, but I don't think anyone had any" - then to Cheney's admission "I had a beer with lunch". I don't know about you, but everyone I know that has ever hunted did one of two things: They were not drinkers and did not drink - or - They were drinkers and it turned from a hunting trip to a drinking party within hours. If I have a beer with lunch it is not the last one I have and I would venture to guess that it wasn't Cheney's either. Ask any policeman how many drinks a driver has had - when they admit to any - one beer is a very popular number. They should give up selling six and twelve packs since everyone drinks 'one beer'.
My problem with this controversy is that it is beginning to look a little too orchestrated even for me. Making a big stink over whom broke the news and to whom instead of the true mystery of why it took so long; it seems as though the mainstream media really has been taken over by the administration's handlers. Controlling both sides of a story is quite a powerful position, a seemingly adversarial press that asks pridefully about why they didn't get personal phone calls from the scene is not good journalism. The question isn't why did the news come from ranch owner Katharine Armstrong, and then by way of her "hometown newspaper"; as telling as that question's answer might be, Cheney has given that answer and it is laughable but not likely to change. The question I want answered is, is there not one person in Cheney's entourage of cohorts and Secret Service that has any idea how to both release news officially and hide the Vice President long enough for him to sober up? Apparently the threat of someone jabbing a needle in him and getting his blood alcohol content if they released the news immediately and sat the Vice President at the hospital with his victim was deemed much too dangerous compared to just obfuscating the facts afterwards in the media. Such is the grip this administration has on both FNN and the MSM.
The way most of the media had been all over the tremendous 20 hour wait until they got the news, I thought they were understanding the truth of the matter; that there was a deliberate delay and some reason for it, but the way the White House press corp has gone into hysterics because they didn't get the first call, it's all a little disheartening. I find it difficult to understand that with all the unseemly things that Dick "Dick" Cheney has been involved with over the years, and the parts of this case that there is no chance to recover at this time, (such as whether the delay was about sobering Cheney up); the locus of the hysteria is the ego of the press corp being bruised that they didn't hear it first. Never mind that the Veep was likely rather impaired and was sequestered for sobering up is the mostly likely scenario; they're crying crocodile tears because he cheated on them by allowing the story to surface through local media. The missing hours is the story here, but egotism is getting in the way.
Initial reports that there - "was no drinking" - eventually changed to - "there was beer in the cooler, but I don't think anyone had any" - then to Cheney's admission "I had a beer with lunch". I don't know about you, but everyone I know that has ever hunted did one of two things: They were not drinkers and did not drink - or - They were drinkers and it turned from a hunting trip to a drinking party within hours. If I have a beer with lunch it is not the last one I have and I would venture to guess that it wasn't Cheney's either. Ask any policeman how many drinks a driver has had - when they admit to any - one beer is a very popular number. They should give up selling six and twelve packs since everyone drinks 'one beer'.
My problem with this controversy is that it is beginning to look a little too orchestrated even for me. Making a big stink over whom broke the news and to whom instead of the true mystery of why it took so long; it seems as though the mainstream media really has been taken over by the administration's handlers. Controlling both sides of a story is quite a powerful position, a seemingly adversarial press that asks pridefully about why they didn't get personal phone calls from the scene is not good journalism. The question isn't why did the news come from ranch owner Katharine Armstrong, and then by way of her "hometown newspaper"; as telling as that question's answer might be, Cheney has given that answer and it is laughable but not likely to change. The question I want answered is, is there not one person in Cheney's entourage of cohorts and Secret Service that has any idea how to both release news officially and hide the Vice President long enough for him to sober up? Apparently the threat of someone jabbing a needle in him and getting his blood alcohol content if they released the news immediately and sat the Vice President at the hospital with his victim was deemed much too dangerous compared to just obfuscating the facts afterwards in the media. Such is the grip this administration has on both FNN and the MSM.
posted by part-time thinker at 7:50 AM
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