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February 13, 2006
Theatre as News (or the other way around)
As my exile to the land of fat hamburger eaters continues, I was bemused today by the coverage of the US Vice President's minor hunting accident. I should never watch political commentary shows, but having made the mistake, I have to say that reading significance into a silly little hunting accident is possibly one of the most shallow idiocies ever.
ADDED: Re this quote: "Let's just be clear here," Gregory said. "The vice president of the United States accidentally shoots a man and he feels that it's appropriate for a ranch owner who witnessed this to tell the local Corpus Christi newspaper and not the White House Press corps at large or notify the public in a national way?"
Poor baby.
Posted by The Lounsbury at February 13, 2006 07:15 PM
Filed Under:
Politics
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Comments
if you want true theater, watch Comedy Central tonight at 1130pm. The Colbert Report will surely make you laugh, as long as you realize it's a parody of the "real" news and talk shows.
Posted by: drdougfir at February 13, 2006 07:56 PM
A) It's emblematic of his, and the entire Admin's, lack of competence, but that's just me talking far as that goes. Shooting himself in the foot would've been perfect, symbol-wise, but this is close enough.
B) The release, via the ranch owner, to a small paper in Texas is, shall we say, irregular. In the extreme. It looks both bad & stunningly, stunningly stupid, especially if this was what it appears to be, a mere accident that could have happened to anyone in the situation as described. But, I suppose, such stupidity isn't surprising, merely typical. Once again, emblematic.
Posted by: pantom at February 14, 2006 04:33 AM
Bah. Party politics.
Posted by: collounsbury at February 15, 2006 01:18 AM
"Let's just be clear here, . . .
Let me run that through the translator for you.
"Let's just be clear here, we are forced to hang around listening to your pre-chewed admin-spin twice a day, seven days a week but when you finally have some actual news, you give an exclusive to some third-rate newspaper in the middle of nowhere. Then our editors call us up screaming and we have no idea what's going on and we look like complete idiots."
Posted by: Anonymous at February 15, 2006 06:47 PM
Fair cop.
I note that my initial disdain for this story has faded in the face of (i) understanding the injury to the hunting colleague is rather graver than initially presented, (ii) Cheney's rather peculiar handling of the entire affaire.
I respect privacy as much as the next man, if not more. But frankly, when a high official shoots someone and greviously wounds them, some public communication is to be expected, even in the case of an accident.
Posted by: collounsbury at February 15, 2006 08:43 PM
