Commentary

Cheney’s Heart Exposes Media Bias

Has anyone seen the Dark Lord lately? Vice President Dick Cheney has been very quiet during the current economic meltdown. But, Cheney did make the news today after a routine trip to the doctor’s office. I read two different versions of the same story the Washington Times and the Washington Post today. This made me think that there is a bit of truth to conservatives’ claims of media bias. But, they may be just as guilty as the liberal weenies they so despise.

Both stories mentioned that Cheney canceled a fundraiser in Illinois due to the discovery of an abnormal heart rhythm during what his office described as a “routine examination”. But the Washington Post added a lot more details concerning the Dark Lord’s history of heart problems. The Times made it seem as if he was going for just another fang-whitening.

According to his spokeswoman, this was just a maintenance visit required to “restore his natural rhythm”. You know, like a warm cup of herbal tea or a soothing Calgon Bath would be to average surface dwellers.

The Washington Times article stressed that this was a routine visit. It was a brief story – barely more than a blurb – like an Associated Press release about rising foreclosure rates. The Times stressed that there is nothing to see here – implying that the reader move on to Democrat-funded voter fraud and Obama’s terrorist connections.

The Washington Post article was much longer, and included this summary of the Vice President’s history with heart trouble:

“Cheney, 67, has suffered four heart attacks since the age of 37 and has had quadruple bypass surgery, two angioplasties and an operation to implant a defibrillator device to monitor his heartbeat. An electric shock was administered to his heart at GWU last November to restore his heart rhythm.”

The Post article doesn’t make it sound like the Dark Lord is doomed, but it certainly goes into great detail about his long battle to remain among the living.

Both articles explained that it was a recurrence of arterial fibrillation, discovered for the first time just a year ago. But the Post noted that this abnormal heart rhythm can cause clots and lead to strokes. The Washington Times finished by mentioning that the condition was not an emergency.

For me, this experience drove home the need to read from several sources on each issue that I deem relevant. In the middle of a financial crisis, with elections just a few weeks away, a story about Dick Cheney is not huge news – except for a person like me who is obsessed with his pure, dark nature. What it does highlight, though, is the need to to expand one’s sources of information in the quest to develop an informed opinion.

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© 2008 Splendid Marbles.