Saturday, February 18, 2006

Crisis Management 101

First lesson. Do not do it this way!
VP Accident Tale Filled With Discrepancies - Yahoo! News: "'There's a reason they call this crisis management,' said corporate damage-control specialist Eric Dezenhall, 'and that's because it's a mess.'"
Ya think? Blaming the victim really isn't a good idea, as they soon found out.
In the first days after the vice president wounded attorney Harry Whittington while shooting at quail last Saturday in Texas, blame was placed on the victim for not announcing his presence to fellow hunter Cheney.
Riight. Your hunting (?) so you run around making noise to let everyone, including the quarry, know where you are. Our ancestors would have died of starvation with that strategy. The incident was then investigated rigorously by the Texas sheriff's department.
Authorities did not investigate the accident until the next day. The Texas Parks and Wildlife accident report, dated two days after the shooting, checked "No" on the question of whether Cheney appeared under the influence of intoxicants. It did not address whether the hunters had been drinking at all. (The report also included a diagram depicting Whittington's wounds on the wrong side of his body.)
These must be the same guys who had to get new jobs after botching the OJ and JonBenet cases. I was under the impression (from tv mostly) that all gunshot wounds had to be reported immediately to the police and were investigated rather thoroughly, especially when there are severe injuries.
Initial reports had him treated at the scene, then taken by ambulance to the hospital, where in no time he was cracking jokes with the nurses. It turned out that after being taken to the emergency room of a local, small hospital, he was flown by helicopter to the intensive care unit of the larger hospital in Corpus Christi.
Of course, I am a person of color and I am not the sitting Vice President so that just might be in my world only. My favorite part of this AP article shows just how disconnected from reality these people are.
Armstrong, for her part, said no one at the ranch even discussed releasing the news on Saturday.

She said her family realized Sunday morning that it would be a story and decided to call the local newspaper, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. She said she then discussed 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. "And he said, 'You go ahead and do whatever you are comfortable doing.'"
How drunk were they not to realize that when the VP farts much less SHOOTS SOMEONE, it makes news.
However, McClellan said he didn't personally know Cheney was the shooter until the next morning, about 6 a.m. EST Sunday, when he was awakened with the news.
Do you think he put the pillow over his face for a good silent scream? How much more can this poor guy take? I am beginning to feel sorry for him. He needs to take lessons from Will Bailey who has his press corps so cowed that they don't even twitch when he walks into a room.

The money we spent investigating a private matter between a husband, wife, mistress and a blue dress seems a little more ridiculous in the light of the last few years doesn't it?

I used to admire the Secret Service but their reputation isn't worth very much at this point, is it?



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