The episode also revealed a darker side to Cheney’s western-style taciturnity. In his own quiet Gary Cooper way, Cheney was kind of a prick about the accident afterward. He waited more than fourteen hours to disclose it, and when his host, Katharine Armstrong, finally put the word out, he let her suggest that Whittington had wandered carelessly in front of Cheney’s gun, a falsehood later repeated by Cheney’s own spokesperson. Cheney himself didn’t discuss the matter publicly for four days, and when he did, he did not apologize. Asked years later whether Cheney had ever apologized privately, Whittington (by all accounts a reserved and gracious man) declined comment, effectively acknowledging that Cheney had not. - http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112652/world-according-dick-cheney-masterful-performance