Sunday, December 14, 2008

Should You Hurl Your Shoes at the President?

A JOURNALIST attending a press conference in Iraq threw his shoes at US President George Bush. Throwing footwear, apparently, is a horrible insult in that culture.

I believe Principle of Journalism #11 is: Journalists should not throw shoes at people during press events.

15 comments:

bethany barton said...

I was actually watching MSNBC when the "Breaking News" bulletin came up.. I could not contain my laughter, to say the least.

I think i'd also want to throw my shoes at GW if I had the chance...

Anonymous said...

I thought this was hilarious... who knew our soon to be ex-president had such fast reflexes?

Anonymous said...

whats the journalist's name? i want his autograph haha

Anonymous said...

If anything, this furthers what Jim talked about in his lecture. It's pretty clear that the people of Iraq aren't so happy with how the US has become involved in their affairs.

Anonymous said...

I was watching the news also when this story came up as 'breaking news'. They compared it to when Saddam's statue was being torn down and people were hitting it with shoes.
I don't like Bush, but last time I checked, he's no Saddam.

Anonymous said...

I think this was great, of all the ways of showing protest and outrage that existed during Vietnam, I don't think much shoe-throwing went on.

I'm glad a citizen expressed his distaste to the President so that we can see how many Iraqi people are not happy with the United States and there are relations perhaps Hilary can build on.

summergirl said...

Guys seriously...even if you hate Bush and don't like the war in Iraq, it's TOTALLY unprofessional to throw your shoes at him. I mean, seriously? That's just immature.

Anonymous said...

Bush definetely had some good reflexes. haha.

Anonymous said...

Summergirl throwing shoes at somebody is a huge insult in their culture, how is that immature?

J K Hirst said...

As a citizen,I would definitely lend my shoe to be thrown at Pres. Bush. As a journalist, not so much. Great video though, will go down in history.

Jen said...

I think that, while we find it a bit comical, it was very unprofessional of the reporter to throw his shoes.

However, I think the more interesting thing to note is how long it took anyone to respond. Um, where's the Secret Service? If the reporter had been firing a gun he would have had at least 5 good shots off. It's just kind of weird if you think about it.

Jonathan said...

As much as Mr. Bush might not be liked around the world, there is no place for this. It is a sign of disrespect and shows no class. I will say however it was rather funny!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Bethany... I'd probably stand up and throw my shoes at him too! I don't think the act made the journalist looks professional whatsoever, but sometimes inhibitions will give cause to a "horrible insult." I'm not sure I'd have the guts to do it in the middle of a press conference, but the clip gets me every time!

Anonymous said...

Typo on look** This is a journalism class, so I guess I should probably correct myself on that.

Geo said...

Typos. Ick.

- George (the grammatically correct teacher)