BCT Editorial – 2/16/06

This page was last updated on February 19, 2006.

Bang, bang; Editorial; Beaver County Times; February 16, 2006.

Never let it be said the Times will let tackiness – or a dearth of facts – get in the way of a baseless bashing of a Republican.

If you saw the print version of the February 16^th edition, you saw the Times dedicate over 162 square inches of the front page to the Cheney hunting accident. That’s two-thirds of the front page for a hunting accident that happened five days earlier!

In four front-page bullet points, the “paper” even speculated about VP Cheney being charged with manslaughter or murder should the accident victim (Harry Whittington) die. This was the day before Mr. Whittington’s doctors pronounced him to be in “excellent health.” The next day, Mr. Whittington spoke before the press and was released from the hospital.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Vice President Dick Cheney continues to give hunting a bad name.

“His latest black mark against the sport was his blasting away with his shotgun while quail killing at a ranch in Texas and hitting a fellow stalker in the face, neck and chest with birdshot.”

[RWC] Notice the drive-by allegations. The editorial doesn’t tell us what the alleged black marks were.

Note the use of “stalker” instead of “hunter.”

“His quick-on-the-trigger firing away at what he thought was a quail violates the first rule of hunting: Know what you’re shooting at.”

[RWC] “Thought was a quail?” Mr. Cheney was tracking a flushed quail with his shotgun when he fired. The author wants us to believe Mr. Cheney mistook his friend for a quail. Mr. Cheney knew his intended target; what he didn’t know was Harry Whittington would be in his line of fire as he swung the shotgun around to make the shot.

“As Mark Birkhauser, president-elect of the International Hunter Association, said, ‘We always stress to anybody that before you make any kind of shot, it’s incumbent upon the shooter to assess the situation and make sure it’s a safe shot.’

“For those of you who might think the IHA is a squishy, feel-good organization, here’s what the National Rifle Association has to say: ‘Be absolutely sure you have identified your target beyond doubt. Equally important, be aware of the area beyond your target.’”

[RWC] No one argues these points. VP Cheney said, “Well, ultimately, I’m the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry. And you can talk about all of the other conditions that existed at the time, but that’s the bottom line. And there’s no -- it was not Harry’s fault. You can’t blame anybody else. I’m the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend. And I say that is something I’ll never forget.”

“But Cheney denigrates hunting in another way through his penchant for canned hunts that maximize his ability to kill while minimizing the time involved. Cheney isn’t hunting. Instead, he’s participating in the mass slaughter of animals that were raised specifically to be quick kills.”

[RWC] “Mass slaughter of animals that were raised specifically to be quick kills?” According to current reports, the quail were wild quail on a working cattle ranch. The author would like us to believe the quail were tied down or penned up so Mr. Cheney and his party could walk up and kill them.

As noted above, the Armstrong Ranch is a working cattle ranch. The ranch’s recently deceased owner (Tobin Armstrong) received the Texas Legends Award in 2002 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Katharine Armstrong, who was with the Cheney hunting party, was chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, and is a director of the Texas Wildlife Association. I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t read like the profile of people who “canned hunts that maximize his ability to kill while minimizing the time involved.”

According to reports, Cheney’s group of five hunters had bagged about 40 quail for the day. The daily limit is 15/person. Therefore, after a hunting day of about 7 - 9 hours (They had breakfast around 8 a.m. and the accident occurred at about 5:30 p.m.), this “mass slaughter of animals” resulted in the average hunter getting about one quail per hour and only about half of the legal limit. I’m not a hunter, but this doesn’t seem to fit the editorial’s description of the outing.

“Please, whatever you do, don’t call what Cheney often does hunting. To do so insults the sport and its millions of participants.”

[RWC] Here’s my version of this paragraph. “Please, whatever you do, don’t call what the Times often does journalism or reporting. To do so insults the calling and its honorable practitioners.”