On Friday, your intrepid Gaggler decided to use a stopwatch to time exactly how much access reporters really had to Cheney. At the first event in Sydney–a breakfast between the vice president and Australian business leaders–the media was ushered in to observe Cheney talking for 41.8 seconds. Next up, Cheney gave a speech that lasted 24 minutes and 37 seconds. After that, the Veep made a visit to the Victoria Barracks in Sydney, where he met with Australian Defense Forces to personally thank them for their help in the war on terror. Reporters were invited in for 4 minutes and 20 seconds of the event. At event No. 3, the media were allowed to observe 1 minute and 11 seconds of a roughly 50-minute meeting between Cheney and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, who is seeking to unseat Prime Minister John Howard this year. For the fourth straight day, Cheney took no questions from reporters on the scene.
Of course, there are signs of hope. On Saturday–that’s Friday evening for you folks back in the U.S.–Cheney will participate in a press conference with Howard. Initially, the schedule timed the press availability at just five minutes–barely time for the two leaders to make statements, much less take questions. But an updated schedule released Friday says the event will now last half an hour. We’ll just see about that. The stopwatch never lies.
