WashPost Publications Go from 'Manslaughter' to 'Homicide' for Hunting Incident

February 15th, 2006 12:06 AM

John Dickerson of the Washington Post-owned webzine Slate wrote a piece, posted Monday night, about the Dick Cheney shooting incident. Here's one of Dickerson's paragraphs:

And at some point Cheney's starchy behavior is also insulting. Shouldn't there be some minimum level of explanation he's willing to offer as the second-highest ranking public official? When you nearly commit manslaughter as a public official shouldn't the honor of your office compel you to stand up and explain yourself in some fashion, at least say something in a press release and not just whisper it to a Texas rancher? [Emphasis added.]

I note that graph, and bold "manslaughter," simply because Dan Froomkin, who writes a White House column for the Post's web site, quoted the same graph on Tuesday, with one significant difference:

"And at some point Cheney's starchy behavior is also insulting. Shouldn't there be some minimum level of explanation he's willing to offer as the second-highest ranking public official? When you nearly commit homicide as a public official shouldn't the honor of your office compel you to stand up and explain yourself in some fashion, at least say something in a press release and not just whisper it to a Texas rancher?" [Emphasis added.]

How did this happen? An innocent mistake? Subconscious anti-Cheney bias? A cybergremlin at work? NewsBusters readers...you make the call.