SHANNON KELLY
Perspectives Editor
Jennifer Lopez requires an allwhite hotel room complete with white candles, drapes and tablecloths, while Mariah Carey whines if her hotel doesn’t place a personal assistant in her room for the sole purpose of handing her fresh towels. Dick Cheney insists on a perfect 68-degree room temperature, Diet Sprite and freshly brewed decaf coffee (among other things). Add him to the demanding divas category.
In March, the Smoking Gun released leaked papers that reveal the vice president’s hotel room requests. According to the Web site, “He likes the suite equipped with extra lamps, with all the lights turned on, as well as copies of the local newspaper.”
Adding on to the unnecessary slave labor of hotel employees, Cheney asks that the TV be tuned to Fox News. Can’t you just picture him drinking his Sprite/coffee concoction in an overly lit room, getting excited over Bill O’Reily being so “fair and balanced.”
How dare Cheney make such outlandish requests. Hotel workers obviously have better things to do than stock the mini bar and set the air-conditioner. Next he’s going to ask that they leave a mint on the pillow, which would be completely out of line.
What’s the big deal? The Vice President likes diet soda and has a preferred room temperature. Many major media outlets pounced at Smoking Gun’s release even though nobody can confirm the document’s authenticity. It’s absurd that news outlets like MSNBC and CNN deemed this trivial document newsworthy. Of course, mistaking a man for a bird dubs any person permanently news worthy.
In all seriousness, this kind of news coverage is unnecessary. There is no reason for reports of the vice president’s low approval ratings (18 percent) to be coupled with obtuse additions such as his hotel requests and hunting mishap reminders. It’s hard to find a legitimate article describing concrete reasons and explanations for such a low approval rating. But type “Cheney” in to any search engine and you’ll get pages of links to spoofs about the hunting incident and blogs poking fun at him for requesting Diet Sprite.
Granted, reading blogs and anti-Cheney Web sites is thoroughly entertaining. Reading articles on respected news sites that turn the Vice President in to a joke, however, is irritating.
Credited news sources should make better use their writers’ time and energy. Actually, bloggers and writers should also stretch a little further and put something worthwhile along side their jabs.
The Washington Post’s Richard Morin did put a lot of effort in addressing the approval ratings. Unfortunately, it was misplaced effort. He used almost 500 words to essentially say that Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson are more popular among Americans than Cheney.
He also pointed out that Joseph Stalin is more popular among Russians than the vice president is with U.S. citizens. All of that information is entertaining, but it’s not productive since it doesn’t even mention any facts regarding the ratings.
It’s legitimate to use humor when proving a point, but only if the jokesters have a point to prove.
Take President Bush for example. He made fun of Cheney, but was simultaneously proving the point that both of their approval ratings are awful. At a Washington dinner in March last week he said, “When Dick first heard that my approval rating was 38 percent he said, ‘What’s your secret?’” according to the Times Online. Even the president knows that in trying times, all you can do is poke fun of yourself and your friends.
04-06-2006