This is really true: If it bleeds, it leads.

[Jo March]

I have been amazed at the zeal of news organizations when reporting the Cheney shooting story. I would have figured that it would have been glossed over by now and we'd be hearing about Michael Jackson or some missing blond in Aruba.

The whole Clinton/Lewinsky thing was all over the news because of SEX. The majority of Americans can understand a scandal involving sex. It doesn't take too many brain cells to figure out a story about a man, a woman and a blowjob.

So, the same thing is happening here. The majority of Americans can understand blood and gore. Some have experienced violent crime or are hunters or have at least seen gory and bloody movies. They can understand that Person X shot Person Y with some sort of weapon. It's simple. No nuance there, no trying to figure anything out or draw any lines from one point to another.

For the news orgs, it's simply, "If it bleeds, it leads" because they know: People like to hear about these types of things for whatever reason. Bloody stories interest folks.

If this brings this administration down, then that will be the one good thing to come out of the shooting. I'll still be shaking my head, however, that this is what did it - not Katrina or Abu Grahib or Iraq or the wiretapping.

Life sure is surreal these days.

[MadMaddie]

1. Real life is weirder than the Twilight Zone forsure!!

[hippiegranny]

2. if I have thought these exact same things

ONCE over the past few days, I've thought them 100 times. You have nailed it.

[Jo March]

6. Hey, hippiegranny!

I've been thinking this quite a bit and it still amazes me. The wiretapping was what I wanted to see take a hold of the media.

Sadly, it's this shooting that is growing in the media - all because of blood and gore and the fact that it's a VP.

[NanceGreggs]

3. Just posted this on another thread ...

... but thought it applies here, too.

This is quickly evolving into the 'perfect storm'.

With the current state of the TV news media, the vast majority of TV news viewers are the 'Brad & Angelina crowd' - you know, the people who tune in just to see who's splitting up, whose sleeping with who, and the occasional missing cheerleader.

That's EXACTLY the audience who are DEMANDING all of the gory details of this story as-is, and if it turns into a sex scandal -- OMG! These nose-in-everybody's-business viewers will be SCREAMING for non-stop coverage of every aspect of it!

The media has created this monster of an audience, and they're going to be faced with the choice of feeding that monster, or backing away from the story as they watch their ratings plummet.

This Admin and their media whores are now falling into the traps they unwittingly set for themselves

[Jo March]

5. Yes, the monster must be fed or the money will dry up

All of these repub loyalist media figures will obey their real lord and master: the almighty dollar.

The monster must be fed and this is just the thing that will feed it.

[Solomon]

4. It's always something like this that does it. You're right. I've been

saying this ever since it happened. The average person can wrap their head around screwing an intern or shooting someone in the face.

And most people have experienced the rage, and temper that can be flared in a moment of jealousy or anger. Add guns and booze and ... voila,
potent cocktail.

[Jo March]

7. And since there aren't any answers or explanations, we are forced to fill

in the blanks. That is the most dangerous thing about this for the White House. If they would have just had a statement or had Cheney come out and explain, then we wouldn't be forced to fill in the blanks.

Having so little information is what is keeping this story alive.