So, I was hanging out with Vice President Cheney the other day…

…and he didn’t shoot me…or anyone else…

A first hand report on Cheney’s First Public Speech…since…”The Shooting”…
By Rich Fleetwood

The events of Friday, February 17th, 2006, in Cheyenne, Wyoming went off without a hitch at the State Capital Building for me, Wyoming Public TV (based here at Central Wyoming College), and the rest of the state.

It was a big day. VP Cheney came to town…to give a little speech, here in his home state of Wyoming. Stood right there on the floor of the State of Wyoming House of Representatives, and reminisced about his years in Wyoming, with his high school and college years, his first baby steps in politics as an intern for Senator Al Simpson in the State House, his many trips to Washington and powering up the political ladder, and many other personal and sometimes a bit private memories. Thankfully, he didn’t drop off first at F.E. Warren Air Force base…where one of the largest Nuclear Missile Commands in the world, with siloes all round us, resides on the west side of town here in Cheyenne…to load up for bear…or any other small furry mammals.

And, he started it all off by letting the world know that his target…er..um…his friend, Harry Whittington was doing fine and up and around (he was in fact giving his own short news conferenence at almost the same time down Texas way). Of course, all this is old news to the world THIS week.

But, last week, the media WORLD was hanging on a thread…waiting…salivating…tensed to pounce…on what Cheney’s words MIGHT be, in this…his FIRST public speech since the near fatal wounding…ok..the attempted..er…uhm…the “accidental” wounding…of Harry, the Lawyer…which gets me to thinking of that old Shakesperean quote,

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” [Henry VI, Part 2]”

..sorry, disregard that quote…a bit off topic…back to the story.

So…There we were, Wyoming Public TV, with our big, shiny, and packed satellite truck, parked all by its lonesome on the private driveway to the back door of the Capital Building…

The street in front of the capital building is lined with over a DOZEN other satellite news and microwave trucks. Reporters with cameras working for CNN, FOX, NBC, and many more media wonks are lined up and down the sidewalk doing their pre-rolls and other B-roll stuff.

A couple of the biggies have run cables across the grounds to our truck, as their video feed to THEIR networks and stations, for this event, are coming DIRECTLY from us. Our WPTV cameras are literally going to be feeding the event live to satellite…to the rest of the world….wowsers…THIS is ONE of the reasons I decided to go into media…

As my previous posting states, we had it all set up and ready Thursday night. Cameras and cables and audio installed and tested by 10pm. Everything’s good. Time for dinner and a short night of sleep. We have to be back at the capital at 6:30am Friday morning for the secret service to scan and sweep the truck.

Up at 5am…a quick breakfast, with a pissy waitress at the Little America hotel on I-80. We jump in the CWC Vans and zoom on over to the Capital Building. The two other WPTV employees that are going inside with me, Jackie D. and Kyle N., the station’s main producer/director, go through the entire security process…wands, dogs, and not quite friskings…in the main entrance area near where the truck is parked.

We head upstairs and onto the house floor, to power up cameras, check the audio and video connections, and make sure all cable runs are securely taped down. We’re in for a few minutes and see all is well, and then the secret service empties the east wing of the Capital to do a final sweep.

Did I mention it was FREEZING yet? The high temperature of the day is only minus 9 degrees. Teeth are already chattering…I’m wearing slacks and a sport coat and tie…required of anyone who’s going to be in the House chamber…not enough to stay warm.

I hang out in the satellite truck for the hour or so while the sweep is going on, while the rest of the crew is doing some prep work in the other building next door for our televised legislative report at seven this evening. It’s an interesting period of time.

All I will say is this…the truck was hot..the cameras were on…and security was doing their job on the House floor. Very interesting stuff…and only *I* got to watch. (I’ll share a little video clip later. One of the unfortunate issues with doing this is that I couldn’t take my Sony Handicam into the building…a rule against electronic devices is being enforced…drats).

Later, we’re heading back inside…sweep is done, and ALL the state congressmen, senators, legislator wives, and a few more folks, are on the second floor…lined up dozens deep…going through the security process all over again, more wands…a metal detector to walk through with lots of pretty flashing lights..and many visible, and not quite visible, weapons…just in case.

Finally, we’re inside the huge room of the House…I go to my television camera, set up on the second floor, and put my headphones on. Kyle and Jackie do the same. And we wait…for over an hour.

Each of us, during that time, get checked more than once for our photo ID, by the secret service, and are ok’ed again. Finally, a few minutes late, the entourage shows up, the crowd gets REAL quiet…and about 5 minutes later, the show starts…and the rest is history.

Cheney’s speech came off well. Our coverage and camera work came off beatifully. Our WPTV logo soared around the world in news clips for the next 24 hours, as reference was made to the speech by media wonks on every continent.

And Cheney DIDN’T resign…as many folks were thinking might happen.

No, I didn’t “really” get to PERSONALLY hang with him, since I was on the second floor. But, Kyle ALMOST got to shake his hand, while running the camera from the back of the house floor, next to the walkway between the seats Cheney strode down glad-handing all the congressmen as he headed out to catch the next flight out of Cheyenne, for places much more populated.

One can only assume that he had more hunting on his mind…possibly using the mini-guns mounted under the wings of Air Force 2, to strafe unsuspecting pronghorn antelope on the windswept plains of central Wyoming.

Here is the coolest part of this whole entire event for me…I did get to be the hands running the camera for the wide overhead camera shots of one of the most powerful men in the world…as he shakes off a bad week, and comes out ready to get to work again.

The world is being seen TRULY through my eyes, as I keep the television camera aimed and focused, with my unwavoring hands of steel, and the confident gaze of a trained broadcasting graduate playing his small role in the earth shattering (not) din of a SLOW news day, keeping the little hash camera aiming marks on the black and white video screen on top of my camera centered…just like that laser powered scope on Cheney’s quail gun.

In other words, the week, and day, from hell for me, in getting down to Cheyenne to take part in this event, was all worth the pain and tears. It was a world changing day for me…and for Cheney, as well as for Wyoming.

As soon as Cheney left, the crew and I went to work immediately. We tore down the cameras and tripods, ripped up the taped down cables, rolled things up and move the whole shebang next door, and setup an entire set with painted backgrounds, four cameras, 6 wired mikes, and a full bank of lighting kits…to prepare for the evening’s live broadcast of the Legislative Report on Wyoming’s Budget Session, all in one of the Hearing Rooms in the Herschner Building.

Later that night, after the Legislative Report was broadcast, we packed up the truck, rolled up HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of feet of audio and video cable, moved the truck to its assigned parking space behind the Capital building, and lock everything up. Teeth are chattering like beavers in a fresh pine forest.

The temperature is down to minus 28…and we are literally freezing to death in mere moments…finally finishing everything right before the first death occurs…and we head out to eat at the Outback Steakhouse near I-25 and I-80…to warm our innards AND our out-tards back to health.

Sheesh…I strongly dislike extremely cold winter weather in Wyoming! You know it’s cold when you try to talk to someone, your words come out and freeze in mid air and fall to the ground, and you have to pick them up and take them inside to thaw them out…to finish the conversation…

Let’s see how things go from here on out for him, and us…

Rich