Was Vice President Dick Cheney Trying To Be Too Cute?

It is only human nature to want to hide or suppress bad news. I don�t care who you are, whether you are the Vice President of a mom and pop grocery store or vice president of the United States.

There are always going to be various strategies you can use to try to deflect or minimize the severity of the damaging story. Every strategic decision must be made based by factors regarding the severity of the story, the prominence of the individuals involved, and the story�s relevance to larger issues in the zeitgeist.

Finally, every newsmaker in trouble has to ask the following question regarding his or her press strategy, �Am I being too cute by half?�

This is what got Vice President Dick Cheney in trouble with his hunting accident in Texas. Cheney, or someone on his staff, should have stepped back and said, �Wait a minute. The second most powerful man on the planet has just shot a man. It might even lead to a death! Do we really want to try to hide this from the world for a day, and then give the story to a small town Texas paper? Aren�t we being a little too cute?�

Apparently no one, including Cheney, thought things through this way.

Serious full-time journalists will tell you that there is no way to soften a bad story, that any newsmaker, especially an elected official, must come out and spill all of the beans immediately and on live television. This isn�t quite true. Let�s say that it is July 2009 and then-private citizen Dick Cheney decides to get a divorce. Now this might be interesting to some given Cheney�s long-term advocacy of traditional values. But Cheney wouldn�t have to hold a press conference at high noon on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to announce his divorce. He could, in fact, give the information to the smallest weekly paper in Wyoming at 7:30 PM on a Friday evening going into a July 4th holiday weekend. Then, by the time anyone notices, the story is old news. Hence the tabloids don�t have a news peg for breaking the story.

In the above situation, Cheney�s strategy could help him minimize the negative attention because of several factors. 1. He would then be a private citizen, which makes the story less interesting and, in the media�s eyes, makes him less of a fair target. 2. The story isn�t that interesting because lots of people get divorced (whereas not that many newsmakers shoot people in the face).

But Cheney�s strategy of trying to bury the shooting story was disaster because of the following reasons:

1. A vice president shooting someone is inherently interesting.

2. The story involves violence (shooting)

3. There is a potential death involved�therefore tragedy.

4. It seems like a cover-up of a crime.

5. At first witnesses said no alcohol was consumed the day of the shooting. But then the story changed to Cheney drinking beer a few hours before the shooting.

6. The national press feels like Cheney burned them before regarding weapons of mass destruction�and now its payback time.

7. The national press feels like Cheney is contemptuous of them�and now it�s payback time.

8. Cheney is known as one of the most secretive of public officials to have ever served in Washington in modern times. Whether it is energy or military policy, Cheney has worked harder than others to keep the media starved for information. Finally, Cheney delivered something the media could have a feeding frenzy with and Cheney was in no position to stop it.

9. Members of the national press corps are paid six and seven figures a year to report on everything important the Vice-president does. By sending the story to a local news outlet, Cheney was thumbing his nose at the national press and their livelihoods�and now it�s payback time.

10. The story outline of shooting at someone that seems to be one thing and yet is actually another, thus causing problems and regret is too rich a metaphor for journalists to pass up who want an excuse to talk about what they perceive to be failed polices that launched the Iraq war.

There is nothing Cheney could have done to make this a non-story, but he could have handled it much better. Imagine if he had simply had a press conference one hour after the incident occurred. He could have begun his press conference laying out the simple facts as he knew them to be, then gone on to talk about how sorry he was, how bad he felt for the man he shot, and then ended by asking all Americans to pray for his victim�s speedy recovery. Then, he should have said he would answer any and all questions on the subject. If asked legal or technical questions like �will there be a grand jury investigation?� he could have had an easy and acceptable answer by saying �I don�t know about any of that right now. My only focus is on making sure Harry gets the best medical treatment and has a full recovery.�

By exposing himself fully and not hiding, Cheney would have made himself a much more sympathetic and likeable character. The media would not have felt like they were obligated to extract more and more pounds of flesh out of him for days and days. All of the comedic jabs on how Cheney hides this bad news like all of his other political failures would have had no hooks. Mainstream comedians like Jay Leno would have treaded much more delicately because they wouldn�t want to seem like they were kicking a good man when he is down. By being open, forthright and contrite from the beginning, Cheney could have kept the focus on the issues of his friend�s health and the honest mistake he made during the accidental shooting. By not doing the quick press conference, he allowed the issue to shift to �here is another example of Cheney doing horrible things and covering it up and hiding from the American people.�

Final Lesson: it�s Ok to soften, weave, or strategize on the best way to deliver bad news, but don�t be too cute or you�ll make everything 100 times worse.

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