It's certainly not every day that a CNN Breaking News alert like this shows up in the ole email queue: "Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a hunting trip in Texas, The Associated Press reports."

The Chicago Tribune's Frank James has a question, though: "How is it that Vice President Cheney can shoot a man, albeit accidentally, on Saturday during a hunting trip and the American public not be informed of it until today?"

"But that doesn't explain why the White House decided to wait before telling the public of the shooting. There may be a perfectly reasonable explanation for why the White House waited. And, believe me, we reporters will be asking for it. When a vice president of the U.S. shoots a man under any circumstance, that is extremely relevant information. What might be the excuse to justify not immediately making the incident public?"

Editor & Publisher is pulling together some of the questions about the shooting and the failure of the White House or the vice president's office to make any sort of announcement. Word only came when the ranch owner called the local paper to tell a friendly reporter there.

Time Magazine is already predicting how the White House will split hairs over the story: "White House aides can be expected to say that the Vice President did not shoot Whittington, which suggests a bullet, but rather sprayed him with birdshot, a type of ammunition made up of tiny pieces of lead or steel."

We'll see how the White House reporters dog this story today.

Of course not everyone thinks this is big story. One commenter at the Tribune Swamp wrote, "Give me a freaking break! I don't even see how this is news. Why is it such a big deal, he accidentally shot someone while hunting. He didn't shoot someone in his house, in his yard, or at the White House. Just because there is little news to report, don't try to make non-news into news."