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Much like the White House’s response to questions surrounding the accidental shooting of a hunting partner by Vice President Dick Cheney, it’s taken us a little time to gather up the facts in response to questions about CBS News’ reporting of it. Since yesterday, we’ve received many e-mails with the same theme, voiced below by reader Mike B., regarding a story posted on CBSNews.com:

It appears that CBS has scrubbed an entire section of a story concerning Cheney's accident with a shotgun. This raises serious questions about the journalistic integrity of CBS News. From the deleted portion of the story:

"CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer reports Texas authorities are complaining that the Secret Service barred them from speaking to Cheney after the incident."

Did Mr. Maer get the story wrong? Why was the section deleted rather than corrected or retracted? Did anyone connected to the administration or the GOP request that Maer's reporting be removed? These conflicting stories and apparent attempts to cover up this story suggest that something more malicious occurred this weekend, and that the administration IS trying to cover it up.

I asked Maer, who responded with the following e-mail:

Here's what happened:

Yesterday (Monday) morning Kenedy County Texas Sheriffs Lt. Juan Guzman told CBS Station KNX that Secret Service agents prevented a deputy from immediately questioning Cheney. I immediately called the Secret Service seeking a comment on the report. The service's first response was, "We'll look into it." We went on the air (and on the Web) with the story as it developed; airing tape on radio and quotes on-line from the Sheriff's official along with the Secret Service's promise to look into it.

I pursued many many calls to various Secret Service officials throughout the afternoon. It took the Secret Service several hours to come up with an explanation. At approximately 2:45p.m., the Secret Service issued a timeline that started with the time of the shooting and included first word that the Resident Secret Service Agent had worked out an agreement with the Kenedy County Sheriff for a deputy to question Cheney the morning AFTER THE SHOOTING. A Secret Service spokesman confirmed that at least one deputy had been barred from the ranch shortly after the shooting because "people on the ground" were unaware of the agreement for Cheney to be interviewed. Much of that information aired on CBS News Radio. It was also passed on to CBSNews.com (where I hope it appeared.)

So to answer the reader's question, we did not "get the story wrong." We reported it as it developed. I obviously resent any notion that the White House or GOP could "gag" our reporting on this or any other story.

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