There Just Has To Be a Scandal In Here Somewhere

I wonder if we could focus on a less meaningful story.

I suppose the media abhors a scandal vacuum, especially when something as surely sensational as the Vice President shooting a man comes to pass.  But when the facts shook out and it became clear that Mr. Whittington was not seriously injured, that the accident seemed not to be Cheney's fault, and that there was no other dark and forboding angle from which to play the story, the meager morsel that was called upon to sate the media's scandal-lust was the ostensibly shocking 18-hour lag between the shooting and its announcement.

Not surprisingly, the White House, the Vice President, and owner of the ranch in question Katharine Armstrong have all quite rationally explained that their primary concern at the time was seeing to the medical care of Mr. Whittington, an issue compounded by the remoteness of the ranch.

Ranch owner Katharine Armstrong said no one discussed notifying the public of the accident Saturday because they were so consumed with making sure Whittington was OK. She said the family realized in the morning that it would be a story and decided to call the local newspaper, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. She said she then discussed the news coverage with Cheney for the first time.

"I said, Mr. Vice President, this is going to be public, and I'm comfortable going to the hometown newspaper," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "And he said you go ahead and do whatever you are comfortable doing."

Armstrong contacted the Caller-Times early the following morning, which seems pretty reasonable to me given the circumstances.  Even so, Scott McLellan received a battering today from the White House press corps about the alleged impropriety of the timeline.

What would have been questionable (questionable) is if Cheney et al had decided not to go public with the story at all.  Yes, the local cops looked into it, as I imagine they would look into any situation involving a firearm-related injury, so that tends to elevate the circumstances somewhat.  But as this was clearly an accident, and not even a negligent-sounding accident, causing no apparent permanent harm to person or property, where's the hard and fast requirement to go public with it (much less the indignance at not being informed breathlessly a few hours earlier)?

I think they certainly did the right thing in informing the press, if for no other reason than to guard against the can of PR worms that they would have opened wide if the story had then slowly leaked out weeks or months down the road, gestating and mutating at the half-truth level in the hands of administration-haters and conspiracy theorists.

So yes, it seems clear the right call was made and the facts got out in an accurate and timely way.  But I'll repeat that to have erred on the side of non-disclosure, while foolhardy, would seem to be a level of indiscretion (or discretion, in this case) more befitting the level of tsking being blasted (no pun intended) at Cheney, the Secret Service, and the rest of the involved parties, in response to the remarkably non-newsworthy path of proactive disclosure they chose to take.

I guess it must be an otherwise slow news day - it's not as though there's an ongoing mideast nuclear crisis, possible terror bombing in Turkey, and a really compelling counterargument to global warming out there to keep journalists busy.

Previously:
"Something Bit Me!"

Elsewhere:
Expose the Left has the video of the press conference.
Michelle Malkin and Sister Toldjah have coverage roundups.
Random Thoughts provides perspective.
The Political Pit Bull and John Hawkins are similarly incredulous.

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Update:
The Smoking Gun has the Hunting Accident and Incident Report Form.