The Washington Press Corps Missed Again

Lee Ellis

On Tuesday night, Feb 20, NBC and the other nets broke with the Dubai story---a story that had broken an entire week before and was a big discussion at “Tuesdays at Morrie's” on the 14th. (This is a panel of conservatives who meet weekly at The Desert Willow club in Palm Desert with the nationally known Morris Beschloss to exchange political ideas.)

Why was the press, especially The Washington Press Corps so quiet on this story? Why had they hidden it? Because to them, the Vice President's accidental shooting was much more important to their giant egos, not because of the story, but rather because the VP had given the story to the Corpus Christi Caller Times in Texas before they received it. They complained about the story being "covered up" for 18 hours. How about the fact that their Dubai story, one of the most important stories about American security had been covered up for 192 hours because they chose to highlight the Cheney story instead of this serious threat to America.

Apparently, they wanted the VP to immediately spend time right after the accidental shooting by ignoring his bloody friend on the ground and instead, to call in reporters to film the event. Thanks to the personal character possessed by the VP, he chose, instead, to use this valuable time to be sure his friend was in a reputable hospital and that the family members heard about his friend's condition directly from him, not from TV or radio. Then and only then, did he have a witness to the accident, his hostess for the event, the owner of the ranch where this accident occurred, call a local Texas newspaper.

I would hate to be wounded while with the VP. I can just see David Gregory shoving an NBC camera into my face as he kept screaming at my blood-covered head, "How do you FEEL about being shot by a Republican VP? Are you now against guns for Americans or are you a jerk?

Incidentally, hunters tell me that quail hunting is different from any other type of hunting and, as a result, quail hunters do get accidentally hit with pellets.

Should reporters have been interviewing each other for a full week, while six American ports were being taken over by the Arabs in the United Arab Emirates?

The Press proved its inability to cover news truthfully this week. They made Nixon's 18 minute missing tape and Cheney’s 18 hour missing story irrelevant compared to their 192 hour failure to report one of the most important stories to come out on the war on terror!

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Lee Ellis is a retired journalist and narrator, formerly with both CBS and Gannett (USA Weekend). He was also a combat veteran of WWII, having fought in the South Pacific invasions. He had the pleasure of interviewing Ronald Reagan as an actor and then later working to help him become Governor of California. At the age of 80, he is keeping busy writing and doing free lance narrations for radio and television. He is an active member of Rotary and the VFW.

indiolee@dc.rr.com