The original article published was an interview with the former Vice President which brought up the topic of his stance on the lengths the CIA went to while still under the Bush administration in regard to interrogation. Cheney has been openly pro-torture for his entire tenure as second in command, and only reiterated such sentiments in the interview conducted by Newsweek.
When the photo taken of Cheney, originally a scene of his entire family while the former Vice President was butchering some meat, was cropped to just him and the bloody cutting board, blogs and opinion columns in newspapers exploded with controversy. This is what I find ironic.
Rather than people openly discussing the sensitive topic of torture brought up in the article, they find debating the implications of an image of an old man cutting some chicken as more important?
I'm not trying to get into my own political opinion regarding torture. I'm not saying that torture is empirically evil. I'm also not saying that it isn't empirically evil. What I'm saying is that torture is a very, very serious and real subject. It's irrelevant as to whether the readers were pro-torture or otherwise against. What matters is that rather than bring up the contents of such an important issue, they're upset with a picture of Cheney making some dinner for his family.
How is it that we've become some self-absorbed as a country, and so inherently and chronically addicted to drama, that we cast ourselves into massive public debates regarding the implications of a picture of a man preparing some meat for dinner? Yes, there's blood. Yes, he's holding a knife. So? Is it a human? No. Did Cheney shank a live chicken to death in his kitchen in front of his family, laughing in maniacal pleasure all the way? No. He's making dinner, just like all of us do each and every night. We as a nation are just so addicted to drama that we feel the need to take such an obvious act which should really have no implications on the contents of the article and blow it exponentially out of proportion so that we have something to fight about.
Don't be fooled - the United States is addicted to dramatic mass news. A former pop singer and accused paedophile dying completely consumed the media for weeks on end, all while there are two simultaneous wars being fought, the largest recession since the Great Depression is under way, and the progression of health care is tied up in Congress with seemingly no end in sight. Yet we prioritize the death of a drug-addicted Mtv icon as more newsworthy than the aforementioned issues.
I cannot fathom why this has become a national issue. Mr. Cheney is clearly preparing dinner. If you honestly want to let the image of a bloody cutting board echo his sentiments in the article, then perhaps a soap opera would be better for you than the news.
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