Concrete proof that the media will make a 'controversy' out of anything

As you may have already heard by now, it was reported yesterday that the First Lady had a small skin cancer tumor removed from her right knee in early November. The MSM has managed to turn this news into a manufactured ‘controversy’ because it wasn’t revealed until yesterday.

Ian at Hot Air has the video of White House Press. Sec. Tony Snow trying to calm down a press corps that was foaming at the mouth with rage over why they weren’t told (transcript here).

The mediots are actually comparing this to the Cheney hunting accident from earlier this year and as we all remember, they totally flipped out because they didn’t know about the incident until a day after it happened. While they may have had a minor point on Quailgate, they have none here as it relates to the First Lady. They’re upset for two reasons, it seems: one, that they weren’t the first ones to know about her surgery and two that she’s not turned herself into an advocate for cures for skin cancer.

Contrast this treatment of the delay in the announcing of Mrs. Bush’s surgery to how the media treated former Senator and almost-VP of the country John Edwards’ wife Elizabeth, who held off announcing that she had breast cancer (she found out in October 2004) until after the 2004 elections. Mrs. Edwards wrote a memoir about her struggle with cancer and the loss of her son, and the in this Newsweek interview she’s asked why she decided to share something ‘so personal’ with others. Apparently, though, Laura Bush’s personal health matters are treated as though they should be a matter of public record. Double standards, anyone?

SSDD.

More: Jason at Texas Rainmaker makes an excellent point here:

I find it downright hilarious that the MSM is making such a big deal about Laura Bush’s choice not to make a grand public spectacle about her having a discolored mole removed from her leg.

Why, you ask?

Because this is the same MSM that tried to tell us for years that a President having an adulterous affair with a member of his staff in the White House is a private matter.

So many double standards, so little time to talk about ’em …

Prior/Related:

How the media manufactures a scandal

Political Satire Fake News - The Nose On Your Face says:

December 20, 2006 at 11:28 am

TNOYF Exclusive: New Transcript Of Tony Snow’s Press Conference On Laura Bush’s Cancer

Full transcript follows: Q: Tony, can you tell us about Mrs. Bush’s skin cancer? Is she going to be okay? How does she feel? Mr. Snow: I spoke to her just a short time ago. She is doing fine and

Leaning Straight Up says:

December 20, 2006 at 11:31 am

Whitehouse Press Corps clearly has no life as they dog Laura Bush over her skin cancer- Updated

UPDATED BELOW
H/T to Michelle Malkin on this who says:
I, for one, was glad to hear that the surgery to remove the skin cancer tumor from First Lady Laura Bush’s right shin in early November was successful.
My relief seems not to have been …

Severian says:

December 20, 2006 at 11:33 am

Just wait until they hear that George Bush had a, gasp, hangnail removed!!! What did he know and when did he know it?!?!?!? Was Cheney involved?!?!? Did Halliburton get the contract to remove it? Why all the secrecy?!?!?

stoo says:

December 20, 2006 at 12:27 pm

Just imagine how they would have reacted if this non-viable tissue mass had been located inside the First Lady’s body, rather than on her shin. Would they have demanded details, or would they have respected her decision to remove it as a private matter?

Lorica says:

December 20, 2006 at 1:07 pm

Can we expect anything that remotely looks like a conscience in the MSM, when it comes to the President or the 1st Lady?? These guys are as clueless as a box of rocks, and that is an insult to the rocks. I love how some on the left think the MSM is to conservative, and are totally clueless when it comes to the leftist double standard of the MSM. Ohhh well just another day in devisive America thanks to our buddies in the MSM. – Lorica

Leslie says:

December 20, 2006 at 1:22 pm

Rivals the “Who Stole the Tarts” sequence in “Alice and Wonderland” for hilarity. Could be the centerpiece of a satire on the White House Press Corps, which would feature Will Farrell as the press secretary, and Jim Carrey as the David Gregory-like character. (Or maybe the other way around? What say thee, Sistah?)

$\:d/$

benning says:

December 20, 2006 at 4:14 pm

The only reponse to the media for most of their questions remains, “It’s none of your damn business!”

dk2 says:

December 20, 2006 at 4:45 pm

Off topic. Comment moved to today’s open thread. –ST

fearthesame says:

December 21, 2006 at 6:40 pm

On the radio, CBS seems to be most blatanly biased newsfeed. After reporting this story, they couldn’t resist adding that Nancy Reagan and Betty Ford used their medical problems as teach-ins to educate the public about illness. Besides the fact that Ford and Reagan probably had more time to react before the story broke, one of Betty Ford’s “medical problems” was an addiction to prescription painkillers. Can we think of any public figure with a similar problem, and how the media chose to handle it? Think hard.