Posted on 12/16/2008 7:50:50 AM PST by SmithL
Google "shoe-thrower" and "Pulitzer" this morning, and you will get a surprising number of hits.
From the streets of Baghdad to the blogs of North America, some are hailing reporter Muntadar al-Zeidi as a hero for having the spine to do what journalists should have done years ago.
They are wrong.
"This is a farewell kiss, you dog," al-Zeidi yelled as he flung his shoes toward President Bush Sunday, in the most entertaining presidential news conference moment since Dan Rather confronted Richard Nixon 35 years ago.
As someone who has attended hundreds of news conferences, including dozens at the White House, sometimes I have wanted to scream far worse at politicians spewing predictable and self-serving pabulum.
And, after watching Bush appear for years before crowds seemingly scrubbed of dissent, I understand the glee in watching the direct confrontation.
But journalists play far too important a role in a democracy to allow themselves to squander their access with emotional outbursts.
There is a reason for the "no cheering in the press box" axiom. The public is entitled to information, and journalists have a responsibility to both elicit and broadcast it. Displays of anger, repulsion or even devotion - no matter how righteous - deny the public that information.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Oh, yeah? Good. Expect a friendly visit from Secret Service!
Scoreboard, baby! I like that quote. Thanks
Throw shoes at a dictator and never be seen again.
Throw shoes at a liberator and become an islamist hero.
Yeah, and blind-folded, with both arms tied behind my back!
Actually, al-Zeidi accomplished plenty, but in the opposite direction than he intended. Before the President Bush sent the US military to liberate Iraq from Saddam’s totalitarian regime, any journalist or anyone else who threw a show at a foreign dignitary visiting as a guest of the government would have been hauled off to prison, tortured for a while, and killed.
Thanks to President Bush and the US military, Iraq is now the sort of place where freedom of expression is an option, even for those who use it unwisely and in opposition to the government. Al-Zeidi will not be tortured or killed by the new Iraqi government, and is unlikely to even spend significant time in prison for this high-profile but really minor “assault”.
Marc, your column puts me in mind of what Mae West said in one of her movies. If American journalists have ever been Snow White...they’ve drifted.
Heheheh
Check back on his opinion when the jobless start to heckle the Obama White House.
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