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TechnoratiMuntadar al-Zaidi Did What We Journalists Should Have Done Long Ago
When Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi heaved his two shoes at the head of President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, he did something that the White House press corps should have done years ago.
Al-Zaidi listened to Bush blather that the half-decade of war he had initiated with the illegal invasion of Iraq had been "necessary for US security, Iraqi stability (sic) and world peace" and something just snapped. The television correspondent, who had been kidnapped and held for a while last year by Shiite militants, pulled off a shoe and threw it at Bush-a serious insult in Iraqi culture-and shouted "This is a farewell kiss, you dog!" When the first shoe missed its target, he grabbed a second shoe and heaved it too, causing the president to duck a second time as al-Zaidi shouted, "This is from the widows, the orphans, and those who were killed in Iraq!"
I'll admit, listening to Bush lie his way through eight years of press conferences, while pre-selected reporters played along and pretended to get his attention so they could ask questions which had been submitted and vetted in advance, I have felt like throwing my shoes at the television set.
Al-Zaidi, who paid for his courageous act of protest by being brutally beaten by security guards, is a hero of the profession. He stopped taking the president's BS and called him what he is: a murderer and a criminal, with the blood of perhaps upwards of a million Iraqis on his hands. Al-Zaidi used what was supposed to be a staged photo-op for the president as an opportunity to speak up for those whose lives have been ruined by this president-the ones our suck-up journalists routinely ignore.
I'm not suggesting that journalists should routinely leave presidential press conferences in their stocking feet. We have different ways of expressing our sentiments to people we feel have insulted our intelligence than throwing shoes at them, but it would be nice to see a journalist or two flip the president the bird when he lies so blatantly to them. Or they could all get up and just walk out, leaving him standing alone at the presidential lectern.
It's time for the press corps to stop treating presidents like royalty. If he accomplished anything at all in eight years in office, President Bush has demonstrated that, to the contrary, the president is a very ordinary-and in his case a rather less than ordinary-man. The office of president deserves no more respect than that of the mayor of Detroit, or of Wasilla.
My suggestion is that the press corps use the remaining five weeks of the Bush administration to develop a new relationship with the presidency-one in which they drop all the phony propriety and tradition and start acting like boisterous newshounds of old, barking questions, laughing cruelly at inane answers, demanding follow-ups when they are given the run-around, and, where necessary, walking out, or perhaps tossing the occasional shoe.
The journalism profession was a full-blown disaster and an utter disgrace during the Bush administration, and with all the crises facing the country and the world, in part because of that failure on their part, we cannot afford to have them continue that failure into the Obama administration.
With the Bush administration reduced to a running joke at this point, it gives the journalism profession a chance to redeem itself by using these few remaining weeks to establish a new tradition for presidential press conferences and photo-ops-one that can continue on into the new presidency.
Meanwhile, I'm suggesting that my alma mater, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, hire al=Zaidi to teach a class in press conference journalism techniques. They should make it a multi-year appointment, because if he left after just one year, his would be difficult shoes to fill.
NOTE: Speaking of shoes and the White House, Skip Mendler of Honesdale, PA
has a great idea. He suggests that everyone who is disgusted with the
outgoing Bush/Cheney administration send a shoe to the White House. Just
imagine a pile up of a million smelly old running shoes in the White House
mailroom! I think he's got something. Spread the word!
41 Comments so far
Show AllDana Perino got a black eye in the scuffle.
Joe
Just think. If the White House press corp and their bosses hadn't been so damn cowardly, gullible, lazy, uninspired, self indulgent, mutually protective and so forgetful of their once proud heritage, we might not have had eight years of utter unspeakable disaster after disaster. The trillions of dollars wasted, the tens or maybe hundreds of thousands dead and maimed, the lost moral high ground, the damaged Constitution and economy, might not have taken place or been minor if the journalists had merely done their job, what they were trained and ethically bound to do.
The public expects politicians to be craven predators. We expect something better though from those who proclaim they are professional journalists. From them, we require truth or at least an obvious diligent effort to find it regardless of the consequences.
What's more important? A journalists pride, perks and "access"? Or, protecting fellow citizens who cannot protect themselves. One thing is sure, the failure of US journalists to reveal the frauds of this Administration stupidly squandered something ultimately more important in the long run.... Trust. I am confident al-Zaidi doesn't want weak late accolades. He wants US journalists to do their damn job. The only one they had.
Signed: Lawlessone [for more irreverence, see resistence-is-possible.blogspot.com]
abdosoliman46
our journalist does not need to throw shoes. They need to stop accepting embedding anywhere, they have to demand their constitutional wright to to inform the public without censorship. The failing news paper should understand that they are loosing readers because low quality of their material. If the media fights for the reader's interest and issues, the public will read, lisent and watch them, in print or in any other form.
> It's time for the press corps to stop treating presidents like royalty.
Bill Clinton sure as hell didn't get treated like royalty.
Maybe he should have written "It's time for the press corps to stop treating Republican presidents like royalty."
Al Zaidi is a hero, a courageous man who deserves respect for his actions. He has spoken eloquently for the hundreds of millions, in this sorry barbaric world, who would love to address their masters in the same clear fashion. Bush will go down in history as Bush the Destroyer, and the American media, to its lasting shame and infamy, will be thought of as his cowardly enablers..
If only we had ten "Al Zaidis" in the US media. Who knows, perhaps the US would not be waging these ruinous genocidal wars in two foreign countries? Instead of holding him to account, the US media gave Bush a platform for his lies...
And now the world is drowning in blood....
The irony of all this is that US mainstream media accounts of this never once mention what the journalist said, but focus only on the issue of "security" and how poorly the reaction was on the part of Bush's bodyguards. The brutal victimization of the Iraqi people by this illegal and pointless war is still verboten in the US media.
Yeahyeahyeah...the press has been given the run around and has laid down and taken it. What the hell else is new? The morons are doing the same thing with the so-called agent of change, President-Elect Obama. Not one journalist is asking tough questions of the corporate sponsored lying windbag known as Barack Obama. Change? My a**. If the United States wanted another Clinton presidency, they'd have voted the bitch into office.
So, does the White House press corps plan on going tough on the newbie? Ha!
I dunno man, I'd rather someone toss a grenade than a shoe. I just hope that the person who does is a rich American instead of an Iraqi so that our government can't use it as an excuse to amp up militarily in Iraq.
I keep feeling like Bush, Cheney, and crew are about to escape via some rocket-powered skull-shaped dome.
I've been thinking, for a very long time, that the news people, starting with the White House Press Corp, should boycott all of Bush's public appearances. Don't go. He is a liar, and will lie to you. Period. Everything he says is a lie. Everything he does is self-serving. He never thinks of anyone but himself. He is a psychopath. He doesn't care what anyone thinks. He does what he wants, regardless of propriety, law or good taste. He loves to lord it over the press corp...stop letting him do that! Presidents must be citizens first, answerable to ALL OUR LAWS, then President second...not the other way 'round!
He's an armchair christian who knows nothing of, and cares even less for, Christianity. Like everything else, being "born again" is just a means to an end. In the case of war, he had a serious Jones for butchering Iraqi's, and he knew no one would stop him...and he had cadres who would unquestioningly do his bidding. And thus, the Rape of Iraq began, with an excuse, created for Bush, to attack Iraq, a country that couldn't threaten it's own neighbors, much less the world's greatest bully nation, the United States...the only nation to use "weapons of mass murder" (George W. Bush's words) against whole populations of large cities.
Boycott Bush...there's no story there. Even if there is, act as if there isn't, and take a vacation until Obama takes office, and then bring on the change Obama talks about...grow a pair and be like Helen Thomas and adopt a take no prisoners attitude toward the next President. He's got the toughest job this country has ever had for a President, cleaning up the massive waste and corruption, the filth and the degradation, the mindless depravity of the Bush war decade and a world raping dynasty, from his Grandpappy and his predecessors, all the way to the genetically defective brush cutter from Midland, Texas, Connecticut. Every President needs to have his feet held to the fire to keep him/her honest! Like them, hate them, bake their feet! They shouldn't be allowed to simply steamroll over the US taxpayers...they must answer to the US taxpayers!
These are sad times. When a President of this nation brings so much shame and humiliation to this country, as a result of his hard line, myopically cold blooded view of the world he sees in his image...always seeing the world through his own mirrored nightmare world, where good is bad, up is down, and killing is good and torture is kindness. He is insane. He is likely on drugs...notice the way his jaw moves side to side during stressful moments...hmmm...what has Junior been putting up his nose lately?
A fitting goodbye for dubya.
One american "reporter" had guts:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879
yup -- that was brilliant moment.
Colbert really skewered NOT JUST BUSH -- but the MEDIA ESTABLISHMENT itself -- they were HIS 'captive' audience and thrhough their fake smiles and "good natured" laughing along - they were really SQUIRMING because they ALL knew he was talking about THEM also.
in their expensive dinners and tuxedos and gowns and jewelry -- the COURTIERS of the EMPEROR and his COURT -- are NOTHING in comparison with that reporter in his cheap clothes in iraq the other day.
and these people in the US media KNOW IT..they are NOTHING compared to the iraqi journalist.
The guy was right - and I love the idea of sending shoes to Bush. I'm in, fir sure.
This guy is a hero. Actions speak louder than words, although finally the cheerleading press has to acknowledge that Arabs have a right to be angry. I could not think of a better send-off for this war criminal. It was fitting that the shoe was thrown when both the war criminal and his puppet were in front of the press. It is a message to both of them.
Al Zaidi is a courageous man by all accounts. I like the idea of sending all our old shoes to the White House - one pair for all the innocents killed in Iraq
,
Send the "rotten" sneakers to Laura Bush. That woman needs a wake-up call.
She's married to the #1 War Criminal in the world today.
,
one thing i can say abotu laura bush though,
SHE IS HOT
she looks LUSCIOUS!!
too bad she married a DOG!!
............... maybe that's because she's a Bitch...
I think the idea of sending shoes to the White House is a terrible one. It is a cheap publicity stunt that is not inexpensive. At a time when so many people are losing jobs, far better to take the money that it would have cost to mail the shoe and donate it to a food bank.
It would also use fuel to move all the shoes around, thereby contributing to global warming.
As a Republican (since changed to Democrat) who advocated impeaching both Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney for running an incompetent foreign policy (I am afraid in all sincerity believing they were doing the best thing for the country), I think it is time to knock off belaboring lame ducks and spend more energy thinking and writing serious analyses of the problems and opportunities now facing the U.S.
Paul -- you have good thoughts.
the PROBLEM facing the usa is NOT only its economy as a result of its OWN capitalist GIANT PONZI SCHEME which began LONG AGO...and merely built up to the implosion that you see...a side note being : the american capitalist imperialism in teh globe was "ensured" ONLY BY MEANS of a SINGLE stroke of the pen...by making the US dollar hegemony practicable. THAT is the ENTIRE basis of the us prosperity in which BUILDING an empire - so long as it could get away with it for decades (until the recent implosion that has CAUGHT UP with it) -- and that getting away has to do with pegging all other currencies TO the US dollar EVEN IF the US dollar has NO INHERENT VALUE backed up by REAL production according to worl market forces that IT imposed on the rest of the world.
taht is why the FIAT MONEY power of the private bankers of the FEDERAL BANK have enabled the USA to become a BUBBLE economy -- while actually POSTPONING the REAL payment of the DEBTS it has incurred EVEN to POOR countries through the manipulation of the world currency regime naming the dollar s the "main currency" .
this is somethign that the USA NEVER EARNED by itself nor had ANY right to have.
but EVENTUALLY -- since THAT was a PONZI scheme in itself - postponing to the future the increasing debts over the decades to FLOAT the american economic prosperity (in effect, CHEAPENING other countries' resources and labor while making the dollar "strong" so the USA can "collect" profits in the differentials) - it was BOUND to COLLAPSE and that is what you are seeing today.
but leaving that :
the PROBLEM is fundamentally :
AMERICAN EMPIRE. capitalism is its "enabling" means -- the dollar hegemony its TOOL of global structure's finance regime.
UNTIL AMERICAN EMPIRE is dismantled - you will only see worse things to come ...because the BILLS are only beginning to arrive at for the decades of unpaid "American Foreign policy has always been geared towards gathering as much of the world's resources unto ourselves - at the expense of other nations" --(General Smedly Butler) .
who were - all along, despite their poverties, REALLY the ones that were putting the american empire on "life support" by these manipulated global regime's financial structures imposed by america through capitalism.
and it's all like the "chicken coming home to roost".
and WHILE it is doing THAT -- other regions are openly already putting together NEW orders in which america is only an "onlooker" and NOT invited because THEY know THEY hold the cards.
and this is a result of a long ambition of america to be , in the words of james madison warning AGAINST it: "the world's mistress".
it is unsustainable, you see.
it's pure physics -- for every action -- there is going to be a corresponding and equal reaction......eventually.
P.S. according to global analysts (which you WON"T find in MSM in the USA, goodness NO!!) -
while the USA , triggered by the bailouts and collapsing institutions has to "borrow" from itself or others , as the FEDBANK prints "government notes" which is the dollar bill that carries NO real backup value in gold or real treasures -
is in the meantime in debt to the tune of 14 TRILLION dollars.
That is the ENTIRE economy of the United States in a given year.
if the "dividends" and "derivatives" and other fancy instruments that the Gods of the Universe like alan greenspan, bernanke, paulson and their ilk in washington and wall street - are INCLUDED -- the united states OWES the rest of the world ....ready?
55 TRILLION DOLLARS -- and THAT is a CONSERVATIVE estimate only because it is not know where some things are placed!!!
if countries, including poor ones, ACTUALLY demanded "payment" by the USA and its institutions -- the ENTIRE united states will be in the POORHOUSE for DECADES to come.
NOTHING -- not even the "money earned" by hardworking americans will be OWNED by americans...they will actually be MONEY OWED to FOREIGNERS accumulated over the decades. \\
AN IT IS ALL BECAUSE of america's , wall street's., washington's. capitalism's, "america as the exceptional nation's", "god bless america's">
OWN DOING!
It doesn't cost much to send an old shoe parcel post. I don't think this is an either/or kind of thing. There will still be money left over for the food bank. As for the contribution to global warming, it's so miniscule as to be ridiculous.
There is value in symbolism, and right now, it's important to show symbolic support for a brave man who had the remarkable huevos to stand up to the most powerful leader in the world and toss not one, but two shoes at his head. I personally stand in awe of the man.
Dave Lindorff
www.thiscantbehappening.net
Visit Dave Lindorff's website at www.thiscantbehappening.net
It may not cost much to send one shoe, but if the hoped for large numbers of people do it, the aggregate money could be considerable. And global warming is the result of adding up large numbers of "miniscule" emissions.
Why not send BOTH the postage AND the extra money to a food bank and feed a few more people?
If it is symbolism you want, just e-mail pictures of a shoe to the White House! However I am afraid that what either real shoes or e-mailed pictures would symbolize is that lots of people are so filled with hatred of the current president that they want to thumb their noses at him even if it means allowing a few more poor people to starve to death.
The only people such symbolism will impress is those who are already convinced. Other people will regard it with disgust.
"However I am afraid that what either real shoes or e-mailed pictures would symbolize is that lots of people are so filled with hatred of the current president that they want to thumb their noses at him ... "
Wow. Ya THINK ?!?!
"Why not send BOTH the postage AND the extra money to a food bank and feed a few more people?"
Why not send the shoes to the president AND send an amount equal to the new cost of the old shoes sent, the cost of the postage, and the extra money to a food bank and feed a few more people?
In other words, I'll see you the postage and raise you the cost of a new pair of shoes.
-- EKATON --
I love it!!!
I especially love the 'smelly' sneaker for Bush idea. Can't you just imagine the Secret Service blowing up a mountain of shoo-ful packages.
But I could be wrong !
Dissing Bush will be as far as we get in the current moment while the collective lies like the one about WMD while we dumped 1/2 a million pounds of oxidized uranium into the environment go unchallenged. As Ty says, "The people deserve their government, and the government deserves it's people." Abacatastacus! such a wonderful potential for maturing for all of US.
I’m waiting to see Dana Perino looking like Petey, the dog, from the Little Rascals… Now there’s television you can really watch. And yes the guy looked like a pretty good shot that would have nailed Bush if he hadn’t quickly ducked. Pity…
Muntadar al-Zaidi is a hero. And not a bad shot either. Both shoes were on a direct line with the psychopath's head, and if al-Zaidi had anticipated a bit better that Bush would duck, we could have had real journalism at last, instead of the bullcrap of the last eight years by a cowed press comprised of toadies, suckups, and bootlickers.
Let's get that man out of jail and give him a pitching contract with the Washington Nationals.
Pitching contract---No.
Lets make him president of the U S A
the only reporter to show any courage in 8 years of demon rule.
the U S reporters should hang their heads in shame.
I just sent a letter by email to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). They're at www.cpj.org and I suggest others follow my lead. I called on them to begin a campaign to get Mr. Al-Zaidi sprung from jail, and that they establish a fund for his legal expenses. What he did posed no threat to the president and was a traditional form of Iraqi protest. Nor, by the way, was the president conducting anything that could properly be called a press conference. He was in Baghdad and Kabul not to answer reporters' questions, but to give some puffy little speech-ettes at photo-op sessions designed to burnish his "legacy" before he leaves office in disgrace.
Dave Lindorff
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net
Visit Dave Lindorff's website at www.thiscantbehappening.net
I need to send a pair of shoes to the Whitehouse. Does anyone have the correct address?
-- EKATON --
Here's the address for sending your old shoe:
George W. Bush (President for five more weeks!)
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
You might consider writing a message on any shoes you send. Just a suggestion...
Dave Lindorff
Visit Dave Lindorff's website at www.thiscantbehappening.net
Shoe Dust For the Mammon Trust
Bless that shoe hurling hand
give that journalist a medal
The outgoing dog of dirt has no metal
those incoming farewell shoes were so becoming
a truly fitting W farewell tribute
for the puppet dog's last shoe stand duck
for the 'duck and cover' empire dog
'shock and awe' didn't bring flowers
the 'born again bomber' didn't bring security
the 'greatest purveyor of terror' in all the land
where 'guns and butter' profit had the upper hand
while the W walking insult to Homo Errectus
(as Homo Sapiens was far far behind)
the soulless chimp of the Bagdad bust
leaves with little more than shoe dust
for the empire of the mammon god we trust.
THE LAME DUCK WOULDN'T WITH THESE!
New / Just In--"al-Zaidi"--the shoe of real journalists, enhancing 'restful' sleep, naturally uprighting a saggish posture, hi-grip-no-slip sole offers stealthy 'traction' in hard reign, heels resist wear-down--extra width gives pause to oral insertion, and patented feather-lite steel toe 'balances' weight for "accurate" throw...
Supply limited--but alas, still far exceeds American "demand"
http://flickr.com/photos/erikgomez/2827951423/
Although misunderstood, GWB is a moral, good and decent man. This violent outburst reflects immaturity, not relevance. I say immaturity because he missed. This reflects a lack of planning, and this...why no hand grenade.....so close yet so far....
If there were a Nobel Prize for courage, give it to this man. It would be more appropriate for Mr. al-Zeidi to receive a Pulitzer, the prizes the MSM print division hands out to itself, in recent years for gobbling brown. He might reinvest the prize with some semblance of meaning.
It was very good and fortunate that our wonderful President, that has kept us save for 8 years ( 911 was Clintons fault )was not injured by this violent Iraqi reporter. Can I be a reporter for the whore media now,can I can I. Please I need a job. Hey what do you know Foxy News just called me for an interview!
Its unfortunate the media spun it as "Grateful iraqi offers Bush shoes and calls him "man's best friend."
Ha! Brilliant, very well done.
This incident has triggered massive (and ecumenical) demonstrations in Iraq and other parts of the abused Arab world.
What Mr. al-Zaidi, a secular leftist, did was very valuable. Far from being "violent", it's a successful example of what anarchists call "Propaganda of the Deed".
---USAn---
Agreed. The shoes did not need to hit their target, and maybe it is better they did not. The insult was everything.
Correct.
If they'd hit him we would be expected to feel sorry for the idiot.
Like the idea of a Free Al-Zaidi fund, we should send a delegation to Al Maliki demanding his release - freedom of Expression, freedom of the Press and all that other democratic mumbo jumbo Iraq has died for..
Right you are Dave. Did you see ABC's corporate media whore Martha Raddatz follow up the shoe incident by licking Bush's toes one by one?
Raddatz used to be with NPR in the "old days" when NPR meant No Prostitutes Rewarded.