If anybody has any doubt about the MSM’s interest in finding scandal in each and every action the Bush Administration, he need only locate the transcript of White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s briefing today. As I listened this morning (Pacific Time), it seemed that with every questions reporters asked, they were certain a conspiracy was afoot. They wanted to account for what one writer (not in the press conference as far as I can tell) called “an 18-hour delay in reporting” the Vice President’s hunting accident on Saturday.
It seems these reporters are back in their Watergate mood, acting as if this delay amounts to a cover-up. One reporter even asked if someone had made a decision not to report this. NBC’s David Gregory (at least it appeared to be he) wondered why the White House didn’t get this information out, given the White House Situation room. One reporter asked if this were a criminal offense. Another reported suggested this reminded him of the levee story while one woman wondered if the Vice President were going to resign.
Scott McClellan calmly made clear that the Vice President, not on an official trip, was not traveling with his normal entourage and that the first priority of those there was tending to Harry Whittington, the man injured. There’s no scandal here, no attempt to cover up. It doesn’t seem a decision was made not to report this, but that the Vice President’s staff handled this in a clumsy manner. Given that this is not a matter of government policy nor of national consequence, it is only a minor misdeed. For the hunting accident is merely an indication that the Vice President, like all his predecessors, is human and makes mistakes.
I would hope the White House Situation Room serves to address issues of national security and domestic policy — and not the imperfections of the Vice President on his own time. The press’s persistent baiting of Mr. McClellan says far more about them than it does about the Vice President or the delay in reporting the story. From the tone of their questioning to the content of those questions, it seemed they were certain this delay amounted to scandal.
That the Vice President — and his staff — did all in their power to see to the health of Mr. Whittington after the accident occurred is evidence enough that there is no scandal here, merely a good man concerned for the health of a hunting companion whom he had accidentally injured. With angry Islamicists stirring up Muslims and an anti-American tyranny trying to get nuclear arms, the press should not dwell so much on an inconsequential delay in reporting an error (unrelated to his official duties) the Vice President made on his own time. And so we add one example (to the accumulating body of evidence) of MSM bias against this Administration — and its zeal to find scandal in every Administration mistake.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com
UPDATE: Byron York looks into the Vice President’s delay in contacting the press. Via Michelle Malkin who has video of the press briefing.