TIME: The Myth of the Hunt: How the media has misfired…

[kskiska]

on the Cheney accident

(snip)

"And so, after decades at the heights of power helping to mount and administer great battles that caused many thousands of deaths and injuries, the aging leader set out one afternoon into the fields of his beloved homeland in pursuit of a bird that meant no harm to him and which showed him at last — unintentionally, in a twinkling, and in a way that forever changed his heart and, over time, the hearts of all our leaders — what it was actually like to shoot a man."

It's no wonder we're spellbound by Dick Cheney's hunting accident despite the fact that no one died and the responsible party apologized (though not, perhaps, as promptly as he might have). It may be a small story in an age of big ones — an odd minor scene in history's bloody pageant — but if you let it sink down inside your mind and resonate there for just a little while, you have to confess that it’s potent, mythic stuff.

(snip)

It's like war, I've suggested, but it's also unlike war, mostly because the quarry poses no threat. In a time of actual war — and when one of the hunters helps to run that war — the playfulness of the sport may seem distasteful. To shoot at feathered things while obliging other folks to shoot at much larger creatures that shoot back doesn't seem right somehow, or wise. At some poetic level it tempts the gods, and the gods are always armed. For Cheney, that's the painful, humbling part. For the public, it's the engrossing, mythic part. The press may be mauling the story and prolonging it, but the accident's strange allegorical allure is beyond its power to affect.

more…
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1161139,00.html

[skooooo]

1. Those Greeks...

...and Romans (and all ancient people with myths) knew something.

[kenny blankenship]

2. So now he knows what pulling the trigger on someone feels like

the only question is: how soon before he does it again?

[Harper_is_Bush]

3. Good article

I like the "alegorical" thingy....a guy who's sent men off to kill over men finally gets to find out what it feels like to shoot someone.

I also like his description of the hunt. I've only ever hunted chickens, but much the same applies...although I think quail are much more numerous in these "ranches" and hang out in larger groups.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

4. I have to know

how the heck does one hunt chickens?

[Harper_is_Bush]

7. It's another term for pheasent. a.k.a. prarie chickens. n/t

[TallahasseeGrannie]

8. LOl

oh! Because my chickens could all be shot in about three minutes flat. They don't hide real well.

[bleever]

5. I'm glad someone set out the mythic elements of this story.

It really does, as the author says, "resonate".

[Kagemusha]

6. The party responsible has apologized... he means the victim!?

He seriously wrote and meant that the 78 year old man is responsible for his being shot and belatedly, reluctantly apologized!?!?

I'm besides myself.

[WhiteTara]

9. what a bunch of toadies!

The image of drivel spewing down the page without words comes to mind.

[beltanefauve]

10. Nice of the author

to inform us urbanites of the particulars of hunting, but I resent this "blame the media" (the media has "misfired")and "blame the victim" tactic, once again.

[rodeodance]

11. NYT & LA Times gnored questions regarding Cheney accident witness Armstron

Fri, Feb 17, 2006 3:53pm EST


NY Times, LA Times ignored questions regarding Cheney accident witness Armstrong

Summary: In February 17 articles about the incident last week in which Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a hunting companion, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times uncritically reported that the local sheriff department stated that the account of events offered by Katharine Armstrong, owner of the ranch where the incident happened, agrees with Cheney's version of events. Neither newspaper noted that some of Armstrong's statements regarding the presence of alcohol and Whittington's ability to speak after the incident have been contradicted by Cheney.

In February 17 articles about the incident last week in which Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a hunting companion, 78-year-old Texas attorney Harry Whittington, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times uncritically reported that the local sheriff department stated that the account of events offered by Katharine Armstrong, owner of the ranch where the incident happened, agrees with Cheney's version of events. Neither newspaper noted that some of Armstrong's statements regarding the consumption of alcohol and Whittington's ability to speak after the February 11 incident have been contradicted by Cheney. The papers also failed to note that Armstrong's own statements raise questions about whether she saw the actual shooting, as she claims.

Armstrong was the first person to alert the press that the incident had occurred and, according to a February 13 article in The Washington Post, Cheney's office directed reporters to Armstrong for an eyewitness account of the incident. Cheney said in his February 15 interview with Fox News host Brit Hume that he agreed with Armstrong that she should be the one to inform the press because "the accuracy was enormously important."

However, as Media Matters for America noted, the weblog ThinkProgress documented in a February 15 entry that Armstrong's media accounts of the incident have changed on a daily basis -- from claiming that nobody was drinking (February 13), to acknowledging that beer was available (February 14), to telling CNN that Cheney had a cocktail after the accident (February 15). Also, Armstrong's earliest claim -- that no alcohol was present -- contradicts Cheney's admission during his Fox News interview that that he drank "a beer at lunch," the day of the accident. In fact, The New York Times reported this contradiction in a February 16 article. .....more plus contact-email addresses.