Journalists around the world are being targeted by suicide bombers, threatened with "hate crimes" prosecutions and thrown in jail for defending a free press from crazed Islamists.

You wouldn't know it from the circus-show antics of the American media.

Vice President Dick Cheney, as you all are aware from the Beltway press corps' incessant flapping and yapping, was involved in an accidental shooting during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas. The victim is recovering.

It's the me-me-media hyperventilators who need intensive care.

Peacock Network News correspondent David Gregory, whose self-absorption rivals the leading brand of paper towels, threw a snit fit over the 18-hour delay in public disclosure of the incident. His exchange on Monday with White House press secretary Scott McClellan was a walking advertisement for beta blockers.

McClellan: "David, hold on, the cameras aren't on right now. You can do this later."

Gregory: "Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras. Don't be a jerk to me personally when I'm asking you a serious question."

McClellan: "You don't have to yell."

Gregory: "I will yell! If you want to use that podium to try to take shots at me personally, which I don't appreciate, then I will raise my voice, because that's wrong!"

McClellan: "Calm down, Dave, calm down."

Gregory: "I'll calm down when I feel like calming down!"

Funny thing is, I can't recall the mainstream media melting down over the 30-hour delay -- presided over by Hillary Clinton, according to internal records -- in releasing the late White House counsel Vincent Foster's suicide note to authorities and her own husband. Can you?

News anchors who couldn't find the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights if you put it under klieg lights pontificated about 28-gauge shotguns and hunting etiquette. CNN personality Kyra Phillips, in a rare moment of cable news humility, giggled self-consciously as she asked a correspondent to explain the difference between birdshot and bullets. "I think I might sound stupid," I heard her say. Continued...