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Wesley Pruden, editor in chief of the Moonie Washington Times wrote yesterday that Harry Whittington was merely "peppered" with "tiny pellets"; that a "soft pillow and a pair of tweezers" will fix him right up; that the press is trying to create a story out of an incident that "only a corpse could give legs to"; and that Texas authorities aren't even interested since "such accidents are common place". I sent the following LTTE.
Editor, Where to start? Perhaps, since Mr. Whittington is currently in the Intensive Care Unit having suffered a heart attack, and with a shotgun pellet lodged in or near his heart, we can begin to refer to him as the victim of a gunshot wound rather than the recipient of a random "peppering". Further, it is devoutly to be wished that the ICU at Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital offers a standard of care considerably higher than the "pillow and tweezers" recommended by Dr. Pruden. As for the miscreants of the press, it stands to reason that since no one is currently living who can recall the last time a Vice President of the United States shot someone, perhaps there might just be a nugget of news value to be mined. Finally, Mr. Pruden alleges a lack of interest on the part of Texas authorities by nature of the ho-hum nature of the incident. If true, this would be curious indeed. The Texas Hunting Accidents Analysis for 2004 (the most recent year for which I could obtain figures) reports that 1,091,178 hunting licenses were sold, and 29 accidents were reported. That works out to slightly less than 3 one thousandths of a percent, hardly indicative of a "commonplace" occurence. Mr. Pruden needs to learn that there instances when the cold, hard, facts of an event do not lend themselves to his spin. Sincerely,
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