Counterpunch | December 15, 2008
A Hero of Our Time: Muntadar al-Zaidi
By DAVE LINDORFF
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 Busha serious insult in Iraqi cultureand 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 presidentthe 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 ordinaryand in his case a rather less than ordinaryman.
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
presidencyone 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-opsone 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!
DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia- based journalist and columnist. His
latest book is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006
and now in paperback). His work is available at
www.thiscantbehappe ning.net
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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