Delay of info release on shooting incident part of deliberate strategy to discredit the media and assert power and privilege

i don't think there's any argument to be made to the contrary...

My friends, Dick Cheney did not make a mistake when he routed around the press. He followed procedure-- his procedure. As Bill Plante, White House reporter for CBS News said at Public Eye, "No other vice president in the White Houses I've covered has had the ability to write his own rules the way this one has. He operates in his own sphere, with the apparent acceptance of the president."

Cheney has long held the view that the powers of the presidency were dangerously eroded in the 1970s and 80s. The executive "lost" perogatives it needed to gain back for the global struggle with Islamic terror. "Watergate and a lot of the things around Watergate and Vietnam both during the 70's served, I think, to erode the authority I think the president needs to be effective, especially in the national security area," he said in December.

again, nothing new here... this has been the m.o. since day one... bush, cheney and their mouthpieces have repeatedly talked about "taking their message directly to the people..." that strategy has been hugely effective... after all, at the most fundamental level, it's a lot harder for juan and juanita to face down the president of the united states than it is for someone like helen thomas who has made it her profession to get to the truth... and where does this take us...? why, to this very familiar scene...

The people yelling questions at Scott McClellan in the briefing room, like the reporters in the Washington bureaus who cover the president, are in Cheney's calculations neither a necessary evil, nor a public good. They are an unnecessary evil and a public bad-- ex-influentials who can be disrespected without penalty.

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