Cheney reacts to shooting incident

In the days following the release of the Dick Cheney shooting incident, much criticism has been voiced on how the adminstration and Cheney's camp handled the situation. Cheney is under intense political pressure to discuss the accident which has become a public relations nightmare and a political liability for the White House.

Cheney has taken full blame for shooting his hunting companion, saying "I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend", but has been defiantely unapologetic about not publicly disclosing the accident until the next day.

Cheney is standing behind his position that releasing the story to the Corpus Christi Caller Times before realsing it to major media outlets was the right move. Cheney said in a public statement, "I had a bit of the feeling that the press corps was upset because to some extent, it was them - they didn't like the idea that we called the Corpus Christi Caller-Times instead of the New York Times...but it strikes me that the Corpus Christi Caller Times is just as valuable a news outlet as the New York Times is, especially for covering a major story in South Texas".

In terms of when the story was released, Cheney says he was that concerned that if the story broke Saturday night that information would have been inaccurate. Cheney said White House press secreatary Scott McClellan and communications strategist Bartlett urged him to get the story out quickly, but he ultimately made the decision on how to handle the media.


Scott McClellan