He wasn't "peppered". He was fucking SHOT!

[11 Bravo]

Wesley Pruden, editor in chief of the Moonie Washington Times wrote yesterday that Harry Whittington was merely "peppered" with "tiny pellets"; that a "soft pillow and a pair of tweezers" will fix him right up; that the press is trying to create a story out of an incident that "only a corpse could give legs to"; and that Texas authorities aren't even interested since "such accidents are common place". I sent the following LTTE.

Editor,
Where to start? Perhaps, since Mr. Whittington is currently in the Intensive Care Unit having suffered a heart attack, and with a shotgun pellet lodged in or near his heart, we can begin to refer to him as the victim of a gunshot wound rather than the recipient of a random "peppering". Further, it is devoutly to be wished that the ICU at Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital offers a standard of care considerably higher than the "pillow and tweezers" recommended by Dr. Pruden. As for the miscreants of the press, it stands to reason that since no one is currently living who can recall the last time a Vice President of the United States shot someone, perhaps there might just be a nugget of news value to be mined. Finally, Mr. Pruden alleges a lack of interest on the part of Texas authorities by nature of the ho-hum nature of the incident. If true, this would be curious indeed. The Texas Hunting Accidents Analysis for 2004 (the most recent year for which I could obtain figures) reports that 1,091,178 hunting licenses were sold, and 29 accidents were reported. That works out to slightly less than 3 one thousandths of a percent, hardly indicative of a "commonplace" occurence.
Mr. Pruden needs to learn that there instances when the cold, hard, facts of an event do not lend themselves to his spin.
Sincerely,

[bullimiami]

1. no. definitely peppered. dont you watch the news?

[Cha]

2. As Jon Stewart said

"Peppered is what you do to a Caesar Salad".."Wittington was shot in the chest and FACE!"

Is that why the pellets went into his heart and his liver because he was "PEPPERED"?

[izzybeans]

7. The phrase, "The Vice President shot a man in the chest and face."

is the only way to describe it. All else is beating around the "Bush". TDS needn't even change it to make a joke out of it. They just described it in plain english.

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. That's some strong Pepper!

I have to wonder if real hunters are getting pissed about the spin.

[DemBones DemBones]

4. Great letter! Let us know if they print it -- and

don't hold your breath waiting for that! My local rag of a newspaper is probably better than the Moonie Times. Wesley Pruden sounds like he's as much of a charmer as that dumbass Tony Bankley who's constantly on television.

Everyone here should copy down the figures you got on hunting licenses and hunting accidents in Texas; they'll come in handy in discussions with rightwingnuts.

[PATRICK]

5. Looking at the pattern on the police report

It covered only one side, making him very lucky to be alive. Is he blinded in one eye? Has he lost teeth, suffered brain incursions, lungs and blood vessels, nerve and muscle damage?

It was grape shot, bird caliber, at fairly close range, fired oddly very close to the ground for a bird sportsman. ALL the hunting rules are against him. He did not pause even to clear his line of fire. Shooting someone is not a technicality in the eyes of the law.

Had the person died it would have been easier to cover up, more necessary, and more probable than the mess that happened. Anyone contemplating these secret trips with Dick take note. Anyone expecting sympathy or protection from the law or the media- forget it.

The spin is unconscionable, and the victim will be victimized again just for being a nuisance. The actual crimes pales before the general implications of being this far beyond all law and accountability and factual reporting.

[gasperc]

6. Cheney was careless and didn't look at what he shot

Think progress has a video that shows the effect of a 28 gauge shotgun from 30yards(90feet) on a stuffed dummy representing a human. Pretty devastating.

Also, the claim is that Cheney spotted a flock of birds being flushed, didn't see Wittington and fired.

a. A pellet is about 5mm in diameter, a non-smoker's blood vessels are about 3.3mm, capillaries are much smaller, the Aorta is about 2cm. So for the pellet to get to the heart, Wittington was shot in the face AND chest. The pellet went directly to the heart from the initial shooting or migrated from a blood vessel large enough to carry it(which WAS damaged by the pellet!!!! or pellets, ie 200 pellets did alot more than pepper the guy pretty good)

b. Unless Wittington can fly, Cheney choose NOT to shoot ahead of the birds but apparently directly at the rustling he must have seen when he decided it must be birds and fired his 28gauge shotgun. ie Cheney either didn't want to, didn't care or couldn't see exactly what he was shooting at, grossly negligent or Wittington was flying at the time. My take, Cheney heard something in the distance, quickly and without checking what he was shooting at, pulled the trigger. Had birds flushed like has been claimed, they would have been many feet in the air and Cheney should have been firing ahead of them. So the pellets should have mostly overshot Wittington.

[Webster Green]

8. "Peppered", then suffered a "mild heart attack"....

Yeah, right!:eyes: