Shoots, Hides and Leaves

At 50,000 acres, the Armstrong ranch is one of the largest private properties in Texas, and its owners are long-time Republican benefactors.

Michael Kranish grasps the two-pronged nature of the story in the Boston Globe: "Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a hunting partner Saturday in Texas, and the White House did not confirm the shooting until nearly 20 hours later."

Lynn Brezosky reports for the Associated Press: "Armstrong said everyone at the ranch was so 'focused' on Whittington's health Saturday that it wasn't until Sunday she called the Caller-Times to report the accident. . . .

"Whittington sent word through a hospital official that he would have no comment on the incident out of respect for Cheney."

Frank James asks in the Chicago Tribune Washington bureau's new blog: "How is it that Vice President Cheney can shoot a man, albeit accidentally, on Saturday during a hunting trip and the American public not be informed of it until today? . . .

"When a vice president of the U.S. shoots a man under any circumstance, that is extremely relevant information. What might be the excuse to justify not immediately making the incident public?"

Greg Mitchell writes in Editor and Publisher that "it is not known for certain that Cheney's office, the White House, or anyone else intended to announce the shooting" had it not been for a call from the local paper.

Good Morning America

ABC's Good Morning America devoted a long segment to the story this morning.

Charlie Gibson: "We're going to go next to the growing political fallout from all this. Why didn't the White House tell everyone when this accident happened? Why did they wait so long? And did that make a bad situation even worse? ABC's White House correspondent Jessica Yellin joining us from the White House."

Yellin: "Good morning, Charlie. It took the vice president's office nearly 24 hours to go public with news of this shooting. That delay has prompted some speculation on line and on talk radio that perhaps Mr. Cheney was hoping to cover up the incident.

"But a spokesperson with Mr. Cheney's office flatly rejects that notion, insisting that they waited to talk to the news media about the shooting because 'they deferred to the owner of the ranch, Mrs. Armstrong, about what had taken place on her property.' "

Gibson then spoke with Kathryn Garcia, the reporter for the Corpus Christie Caller-Times who first broke the story .