Stuff Journalists Like – #159 Throwing Shoes

Every journalist has been there with a source. There’s the phone calls that go unreturned, the “no comment” comments, the press release at 4:50 p.m. and the 12th motion on a bill to redirect city funds to pay for dog drinking fountains three years after deadline. It can all get to be so much that journalists get so fed up they want to . . . well, throw their shoes.

So when Iraqi reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi threw his shoes at President George Bush, journalists everywhere knew how he felt and tipped their hats shoes to him. Journalists were impressed he was able to throw not one but both of his shoes.

Every journalist who has spent enough time inside a newsroom has had the urge to throw their shoes at a source, or an editor or the receptionist who directs every reader with a complaint, question or news tip to their extension. Journalists are not really paid to report the news as they are paid not to throw their shoes at a city councilmember, police chief or the president of the United States. So when Mr. al-Zaidi threw his shoes at Bush, he was throwing his shoes for every frustrated and fed up journalist.

So instead of throwing Mr. al-Zaidi in jail, journalists think he should be given a press pass, a union card and a chair in the newsroom.

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