Journalists On Shooting Story List Unanswered Questions

By: Joe Strupp For several days, the lag in news emerging about a shooting incident involving Vice President Dick Cheney has dominated media coverage of the episode. But based on interviews with E&P this morning, journalists covering or directing the story are becoming increasingly interested in the actual chain of events in the field, and at the White House, on the night of the shooting, when the vice president wounded his hunting companion, Harry Whittington.

For reporters and editors, from Texas to Washington, D.C., the details of the shooting itself and the immediate aftermath are the top unknowns, they say. As news staffers continue to pursue the story, many contend that the lack of detail is so vast that offering a clear picture of events is nearly impossible.

"The whole chronology of the accident, what occurred," Leonard Downie, Jr., executive editor of The Washington Post, said when asked what details he would like to know. "There is a lot that we don't know yet. We have to find out."

Specifically, those who spoke with E&P Wednesday cited details ranging from how far Cheney was standing from the victim (less than the 30 yards as claimed?) to why law enforcement investigators were turned away from the ranch Saturday night. "I would love to have a videotape of exactly what happened," said Robert Rivard, editor of the San Antonio Express-News, which has three reporters on the story. "It is a real reporting challenge because it is after the fact. There is not much of a record. The vice president left the state without so much as a statement. How is that?"

George Hager, White House editor for USA Today, also sought specifics on who turned away whom at the ranch. He noted that many simple details become more interesting to reporters when they are withheld. "That is a journalist's nature," he said.

Several news outlets have gone to experts or even simulated what a shot from 30 yards, the distance reportedly between Cheney and Whittington, would do to its target. The Corpus Christi [Texas] Caller-Times, which broke the story Sunday morning, has posted a useful video of such a simulation on its Web site, but it shows a pellet pattern on a sheet of paper--quite different from the reality of the birdshot penetrating layers of clothing and skin.

Todd Gillman of The Dallas Morning News says that reporting has at least raised suspicions about the reported distance. "As far as we know, no investigators have gone out to measure where he was standing," Gillman said.

There is also the question of why the incident was not publicly revealed by the vice president's office until the next day, and only after news outlets reported it. "Was there something going on that they needed to get their ducks in a row?" asks Mark Silva, a White House correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. "Were they worried about Whittington's condition? What were the chain of events after the shooting? What exactly happened that night?"

Such unknowns have already sparked somewhat far-reaching speculation. While unproven and in some cases unlikely, lack of an official version allows such ideas to gain traction.

Several journalists also pointed to the victim, Whittington, noting that he has not been interviewed by reporters or even released his account of the incident.

"I'd like to hear Whittington's version of events," said Ron Hutcheson, a White House correspondent for Knight Ridder and past president of the White House Correspondents Association.

"Did it all happen the way we have been told?" Gillman of the Dallas Morning News agreed. "We want to know his version," he said. "He is the other eyewitness and all of the blame seems to be heaped in his direction. "

Gillman added that Whittington's injuries were first described as superficial but he is still in intensive care and suffered a minor heart attack. "It has only come out slowly, the extent of his injuries," he said. "Pellets penetrating his heart were not on the radar at the beginning of this."

Katy Garcia of the Caller-Times, who helped break the first story on Sunday, today called information on the victim "vague....If we could get in to talk to him, that would be great," she said.

Finally, numerous details about the communications between the vice president and the president, both immediately after the shooting and since then, remain unknown, reporters and editors say. "There are obvious questions about what was going on at the White House between the president's staff and the vice president's staff," said Richard Stevenson of The New York Times. "And in Texas with the Secret Service and local law enforcement. It says something about the vice president and this White House."

Silva agreed, saying "you get a picture of the president's office having no control over the vice president's office, the internal fight over turf."

Questions also surround key witness Katharine Armstrong, the ranch owner: How far was she from the shooting scene and could she really see what was happening? Why has her story changed about how much involvement the vice president had in getting the story out on Sunday? Why did she downplay the victim's injuries so much at first?