On "Meet the Press" this past Sunday, NBC reporter David Gregory, after making a half-hearted apology for his poor conduct in arguing with the White House Press Secretary about the Cheney hunting accident, stated that the White House press corps is "a proxy for the American people." After exhibiting his rude behavior, poor analysis and lack of professionalism, Mr. Gregory then displays his arrogance and pomposity by taking on the role of "proxy for the American people." After seeing Mr. Gregory in all his glory, I hereby revoke my proxy and will give it someone who can better represent my interests.
Although David Gregory said he regretted his performance earlier in the week at a White House press briefing, he promptly went on to show the level of his dislike for Vice President Cheney and the Bush administration by stating that the way communication of the hunting accident was handled by Vice President Cheney is "emblematic of the rather secretive style with the press by the vice president."
Apparently, communicating promptly with the Corpus Christi newspaper is considered "secretive" by the Washington press corps. I would have thought NBC News had ways of picking up news from other newspapers and the Internet. Of course, when you are the proxy for the American people, you ought to be notified by the news makers prior to notifying the peasant newspapers in the hinterlands. It may be that the vice president's staff was negligent in not knowing that David Gregory is the proxy of the American people. I didn't know that, but then I live in Texas and have a parochial view of things. All things considered, it is remarkable that I found out about this shooting as soon as I did. Maybe part of the problem is that Mr. Gregory spends too much time keeping the lines open for those that he really is a proxy for-liberal Democrats, the "beautiful and smart" opinion leaders in Hollywood, the academic community and the mainstream media. To carry out your duties as "proxy for the American people", you really need to do a better job of representing our views, Mr. Gregory.
Listening to David Gregory and Maureen Dowd on "Meet the Press", I came away with a better understanding as to why this hunting accident was such a significant national event and emblematic of everything wrong with the Bush administration (why stop there, it is probably equally emblematic of the ills of conservatism in general?). Mr. Gregory explained that "the vice president of the United States accidentally shot a man for the first time since Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton." Now I am only a narrow-minded Texan, but I always looked at people who fought duels intending to kill their opponent differently than friends bird hunting, whose malice aforethought was directed only towards the birds. I guess at the higher levels of the Washington press corps, the mind works much differently.
The other thing that struck me, as I sat out here in the Wild West listening to these eastern dudes, is the funny way they talk after having just apologized and expressed regret for their earlier poor manners. Almost in the same breath, after apologizing for his conduct towards Scott McClellan, Mr. Gregory said that the way the vice president's hunting accident was handled "raised questions about who was really running the rodeo in the White House." Rodeo in the White House? What a cute way of showing your regret for what appeared to be rampant and apoplectic bias. When you come down to Texas and say that, you'd better smile, Mr. Gregory.
Randall H. Nunn is a Staff Writer for The New Media Alliance. Columns by this author can be read regularly on TheRealityCheck.org.
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