Feb 16 2006
If You’re Thinking It’s Just Fun and Games
The Blog | Jane Hamsher: Ten Questions We’d STILL Like To See Dick Cheney Answer | The Huffington Post
The Blog | RJ Eskow: Why It’s Still Cheney’s Chappaquiddick | The Huffington Post
The Blog | Cenk Uygur: What if Cheney Wasn’t the Shooter? | The Huffington Post
The Blog | Larisa Alexandrovna: Chicken Hawk turns Chicken Shit | The Huffington Post
Here are some nice posts — with cites — regarding the blatant lies and frantic spin that came out after our Vice President shot his friend in the face, and why we should care.
Sure, it’s not lying about the intelligence on Iraq’s nuclear capabilities, and it’s not cronyism that resulted in the abandonment of an entire city during a time of crisis, but it’s certainly not just a yukk-fest with the Vice President as the butt.
Although it certainly is that.
Popularity: 3% [?]
BTW, this is a classic example of “Swiftboating” (which is a bit of an anachoristic name, considering that they did it first to McCain):
1. Fox news says “It’s the stupid old guy’s fault.”
2. Cheney says “It’s all my fault.”
3. Fox news keeps saying “It’s the stupid old guy’s fault.”
4. Cheney says “We shouldn’t blame someone else. It’s all my fault.”
5. Fox news keeps saying “It’s the stupid old guy’s fault.”
6. Cheney’s “It’s all my fault.” clip falls out of circulation.
7. Fox news keeps saying “It’s all the stupid old guy’s fault.”
This is precisely the same process that Karl Rove used to tarnish McCain and Kerry without any cause.
Having not payed much ttention to this story since it first came out on Mon, I am a bit disappointed to see its still around. So far the media is doing a lot of specualting and condemning with very little evidence to back any of it up. I have seen it implied that there may have been some sort of affair invovlving the Vice-President, but the only evidence to support that is that some of the other hunters happened to be female. I have seen numerous sites criticizing Cheney for blaming the old man, but the only place I can find any one blaming the victim is in a comment made by the two other hunters at the scene. However, I can easily find a number of places where Cheney claims full-responsibility. If this had been anyone but the Vice-President, we never would have heard about it. While the fact that he is the Vice-President certainly makes the story worthy of note, the media has blown this whole thing way out of proportion.
“If this had been anyone but the Vice-President, we never would have heard about it.”
If it had been anyone but the vice president, there would have been a proper police investigation. There would have been breathalyzer and drug tests (he’s admitted to drinking before the shooting; what medications is a 78 year old man who has had four heart attacks using, and how to they interact with alcohol?). There wouldn’t have been a concerted effort to withhold the story from the press. MSNBC wouldn’t be pulling articles referencing the alcohol use (which happened to be true).
Et frigging cetera.
NOBODY is above the law. Not in America. Hunting accidents happen, and that’s okay. But the coverup, the suppression of evidence, the lying - THAT is a scandal. The speculation comes from a lack of evidence, and the lack of evidence comes from the coverup. If there had been police on the scene and a breathalyzer and multiple eyewitness accounts, I’d feel a lot less conspiratorial.
Cheney hasn’t been blaming the other guy- the media has. Because anyone that close to fearless leader couldn’t possibly have made a mistake.
Which is the sad reality we live in. Just a couple of years ago we impeached a president for lying about getting a blow job. Now, Vice Presidents can go out and shoot people, and what do we do? We make jokes about it. Boys will be boys is our attitude. Add in lying about Iraq, and not responding to Katrina, and there are only two possible conclusions I can draw from this, either A) killing people or almost killing people, wether through accident, negligence, or malice, is OK, but having sex is bad, or B) the real crime Clinton committed was being Democrat. In either case it’s a sick place to be.
I’d also like to point out the Bush-Dead Kitten Survey of 2006, which asks the question if Bush started killing kittens with a hammer on prime time national TV, would you still support him? The answerk unfortunately, appears to be yes. It’s yes even if Cheney starts shooting other people.
Check out the links I cited — it’s more than just a hunting accident.
I have checked out the links. But most of there cites are just other media sites doing similar speculation without any actual evidence. With the exception of the “retraction” by MSNBC and the conflicting statements about the “one beer” there doesn’t appear to be any lying or withholding of evidence. Maybe, with the MSNBC thing, there might be a cover-up there, or it might be how it appears. But I believe a responsible journalist should investigate the matter an find evidence one way or the other before speculating wildly about it. I agree the lack of police on the scene does raise questions, but again that may be because the parties involved had sufficient medical personel to handle the situation and we’re able to convince the sherrif that this was not an emergency. Again, maybe there is some sort-of conspiracy or cover-up there, but investigate first and come-up with some evidence to support that before speculating on it. What I find most depressing about this is the adversarial culture we have developed with our own government. Any hint of suspicious activity is immediately a conspiracy and any statement otherwise is part of the cover-up. Its paranoia.
Where the heck have you been? Responsible journalists have been a rarity for decades, and outside of the blogsphere I haven’t seen on in years. Rampant speculations, generally without any evidence any evidence what so ever, was the rule for the Clinton administration. Going farther back, there’s the whole episode of Carter and the “Killer Rabbit”. Not to mention Billy Beer.
Where the hell were the responsible journalists on Iraq?
You’re not watching journalism. You’re watching “infotainment”. The only news worthy thing here is that for once the irresponsible media personalities that pass for journalists are being irresponsible in a way that hurts the Bush administration.
Personally, I think what’s happening is that the media has figured out that Bush is going down, so they’re going to pin as much as possible on Bush and company personally. This way when Bush leaves office in a couple of years (one way or another), he takes all of his sins with him. This would allow a fresh faced figure head, with a new schtick but the same basic ideology, to take his place. And this new person won’t have to answer for Bush or Cheney’s sins, because don’t you know that they were just bad people. After all, Cheney once shot a guy just to watch him die!
Not to mention the fact that there really isn’t much of a way to spin this. Many details have yet to come out, but everyone is pretty sure Cheney actually shot a guy. That’s kind of hard to work with. Of course we could just laugh it off…
Just because irresponsible journalism appears to be a fact of life doesn’t mean I have to be pleased about it or support it. And certainly there’s no argument that he actually shot a guy. But from what I understand of the situation there was no malicious intent and he at least seems regretful. I’ll admit, that could be a load, but not having any real way to tell for myself, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt until evidence presents itself otherwise. So while I think its a very unfortunate, regrettably event, and I think a good investigative journalist should certainly check into a bit deeper and see if there is anything there, but for now I think the whole thing is being over dramatized and sensationalized in the interest of ratings and political feelings.
Actually there is another newsworth (although, naturally, it’s not being covered by the “news”) aspect of this story. A member of the Bush administration has now, actually, admitted a mistake. First time in six years, by my recollection.