Some media continue with Cheney-Halliburton link

Even though Vice President Dick Cheney left Halliburton Co. as chairman and CEO eight years ago, some media continue to link him to the Houston-based firm.

As Exhibit A in the latest example, Grumpy Editor points to this lead in a Monday Associated Press story by Washington, D.C.-based Larry Margasak: “Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using ‘unmonitored and potentially unsafe’ water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.”

Now, is the use of Cheney’s name really an integral part of that story involving contractor KBR Inc.?

Would the story, which continues for another 15 paragraphs, lack “punch” without the vice president’s name in the opening sentence?

If Cheney and Halliburton are inseparable, as some media believe, then why wasn’t Cheney’s name worked into Halliburton’s latest earnings, released Jan. 28, with something like:  “Halliburton, where Vice President Dick Cheney was chairman and CEO, announced 2007 revenue jumped to $15.3 billion, an 18 percent increase from the prior year, while net income rose to $3.5 billion or $3.68 per diluted share from $2.3 billion or $2.23 a share in 2006.

KBR was separated as part of Halliburton last April.  KBR describes itself as a leading global engineering, construction and services company supporting the energy, petrochemicals, government services and civil infrastructure sectors.  It is the largest contractor for the U.S. Army and a top-10 contractor for the Department of Defense.

From reading/hearing some news accounts, one would think that Cheney, at the Halliburton helm between 1995 and 2000, was working at the company all his life, and, in some cases, was the sole owner of New York Stock Exchange-listed HAL that lists 51,000 full-time employees.

Actually, Cheney has spent more time in the political field than in the private sector.  He started in politics in 1969 as an intern for a Congressman.  That was during the Nixon administration.  He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1978 and moved upward from there.

KBR’s history, by the way, can be traced back to 1901 as a tiny pipe fabrication business in New York.

Now if any of those pipes --- if still in place --- act up, split or burst, is Cheney’s name going to be inserted into the lead of a story focusing on the incident?