This is from the NYT:
"What he did was not an irrational thing," said Mary Matalin, Mr. Cheney's former communications adviser, who spoke to him Sunday morning. "This was a very close friend this happened to. Everyone was shaken up about it. When I spoke to him, it was all about Harry, worrying about him," not whether he should get a statement out, or let his South Texas host tell a local newspaper.
Nowhere does it say that Matalin talked to the VP before the president knew.
"most folks" is not "anyone".
You seem to want to portray Matalin's comments as being merely the comments of some private citizen speaking merely on her own behalf. I don't see it that way, and I think the fact that he was speaking with someone who has historically represented the VP in the media before the story was even out, followed by her making statements about the incident in the media, is not supportive of your characterization.
But my point is still the same - To characterize the incident as the shoot-ee's fault, or as an 'unavoidable' accident, implicitly lends support to those who want to control guns because they are inherently dangerous. They are not inherently dangerous as long as people follow the rules, and the way to reinforce that point is to step up to the plate and acknowledge that the responsibility for this incident rests on the person whose finger was on the trigger. I hope he does so.