No Birdshot Zone

OK, reality check. There's a world of crucial events taking place besides the Veep's irresponsible hunting accident - which (apparently according to plan) is consuming just about every moment of the televised media's attention, in reverse proportion to its importance. Have you noticed that over the past few days there's not much on TV, nor enough in the papers, about:

• the Administration's illegal wiretapping program
• the global warming "tipping point"
• the Abramoff lobbying scandal
• the potentially disastrous, record-breaking trade deficit
• the Scooter Libby investigation
• the exaggerated Iranian "nuclear crisis"
• the $7 billion giveaway to the oil and gas industries
• the latest revelations of "fixed" intelligence about Iraq
• the scathing bi-cameral reports on the government's response to Katrina

Unnnnnhhh, hello TV news divisions (and you poor, jilted souls in the Washington press corps as well) - Mr. Cheney's reckless handling of a shotgun is of some minor importance in the scheme of things, and certainly worth the occasional glance as it develops. But what say you focus some of that wounded pride, thirst for facts, and virile investigative fervor on matters that really are of much greater significance...