Round and round:
The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at George Bush, the former US president, has himself come under a shoe attack in the French capital at the hands of a fellow Iraqi.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a television reporter, was in Paris on Tueday at a news conference to promote his campaign for the “victims of the US occupation in Iraq” when the attacker turned the tables on him, shouting: “Here’s another shoe for you.”
Al-Zeidi, who ducked and the shoe hit the wall behind him, said: “When I used this method, it was against the occupation.
“I didn’t use it against a compatriot. I always knew the occupier and his lackeys would stop at nothing to get to me.”
The thickset man made a brief speech in Arabic during the question and answer session, defending US policy and accusing al-Zeidi of “working for dictatorship in Iraq,” before throwing his shoe.
Stolen ‘technique’
Al-Zeidi later quipped: “He stole my technique.”
What technique is that? Missing?
I’d say Al-Zeidi learned from George Bush’s technique of ducking.
Muntazer al-Zaidi (R) reacts as a shoe is thrown at him during a news conference in Paris, December 1, 2009. Zaidi, an Iraqi reporter imprisoned for throwing his shoes at then President George W. Bush, found himself on the receiving end of a similar footwear attack in Paris on Tuesday.
REUTERS/Reuters TV
Noel Sheppard questions how the media will report this, given Al-Zeidi’s celeb status, now that “the shoe is on the other foot”:
To give readers an idea of the media’s fascination with the original shoe throwing incident, a Google search of “Man throws shoe at Bush” produced 1.2 million results.
As for LexisNexis, similar search terms produced almost 1,000 reports in the days immediately following the event.
CNN logged 34 such reports, with MSNBC and Fox News in second with eight, followed by ABC and NPR with seven, and CBS and NBC with six.
Will Zaidi on the receiving end of a shoe toss be as newsworthy?
Also of interest is not just who reports this, but how.
Consider the tone of the Agence France-Presse article published hours ago:
A protester who presented himself as an Iraqi journalist in exile hurled a shoe Tuesday at the colleague who one year ago found fame hurling his own footwear at then US president George W. Bush. […]
Following the commotion, the news conference continued with Zaidi taking questions about his famous assault on Bush on December 14 last year, which was shown around the world and made him a hero in the Arab world. […]
Zaidi’s shock action was rebroadcast repeatedly around the world and made him an instant hero among Iraqis and others who felt that Arab honour had been violated by the US occupation of Iraq.
Introducing his guest at the packed Paris press conference, the president of the local Arab Press Club, Kamal Tarabay, said Zaidi’s “audacious gesture” made him a “hero of the resistance against the occupier.”
See what I mean?
This piece presented Zaidi as practically a hero.
With this in mind, it will be interesting to see if other media outlets that cover this incident use it as another opportunity to praise Zaidi as they bash Bush.
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
He probably plans to for for office hoping he will be a “shoe in.”
This could be a solution to the whole Mid-East question. You get them to give up their AK’s and starting fighting amongst themselves with flung shoes. It’d be quiet for a bit until one of them figured out how to develop MOASS. (Mother of All Shoes System)
Ohhhhhh the puns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let the fun begin!
Obviously he wasn’t the “sole” owner of the throwing of the shoe, “frayed” not this isn’t a “shoe in” for him.
I think this guy is an “arch” criminal and need to be given the”boot”.
OK ok, I hear all those groans!
The Arab World is still struggling with the concept of a shoe bomber.
In an effort to maintain shoecurity, in the future all Iraqui journalists will be asked to remove their shoes out side of news conferences.
(You *punny* guys are gonna kill me real slow aren’t you) 🙂
You people need to put a sock in it! This is a serious matter….shoe-throwing is not the answer to heeling the world. It only leads to more sandal
ous-less outrage!“You stole my technique.”
That sole, corny comment from the wingtip-oops-nut former reporter was laced with a stinky bitterness that will never heel. Wonder who would have foot the bill had this calloused ankle-biter actually socked him.
Careful now guys! I’m already getting lectured on my Tiger Woods post for being too tabloidy and unserious!
Was it also a size 9?
I was loafing around the house today putting up Christmas lights and missed the onset of this thread and must therefor tread carefully or risk stumbling down the path previously punned. I just wish I could have got my foot in the door at that “press conference” but they might have tripped me up at security for trying to tip-toe past the guards with a bag full of golf shoes, baseball spikes, and an autographed basketball shoe from Shaquille O’Neal.
One other thought on the subject of shoe throwing: If heads of state were given the shoe throwing tactic as a means of legitimate public debate, I might start to care about them a little more. I would even start supporting the idea of our inclusion in the UN. Can you imagine Nolan Ryan throwing shoes at Iranians? I’d pay to see that. Guys like Doug Williams, Randy Johnson, John Elway, Goose Gossage, and the Mannings, could become Senators. On the international stage, Cuba and Venezuela would not be sad jokes anymore but we could actually count on the Japanese and Koreans for some real help once in a while. The concept reminds me of a PJ O’Rourke essay in which he traveled the world’s most active sites of civil unrest and evaluated the throwing skills of the protesters. Panama came out on top of that contest because of their baseball skills as compared to Intifada-armed Palestinians that threw like girls.
Speaking of limp arms, I realize that the idea won’t fly because our current President throws like his youngest daughter. Only three years until we get to give him the boot.
In the long arch of history, the shoe thrower has found a toe hold on infamy. Although no longer the sole perpetrator, his tongue lashing diatribe laced with hateful words for Bush caused a rift that refuses to heel to this day. Leather or not we agree with him, we can concede that he is a man of action and no loafer. Still, he failed to per suede many who are still afoot.
I don’t have much time to wag my tongue on this subject so I’ll step aside until I am able to get a usable toe hold in my schedule.
ROFLMAO – should this be a contest at this point? Perhaps a pair of shoelaces to the winner of the pun? LOL
I can’t take credit for this but I remembered it from when Bush was the target,
“do you have these in a size 9”.
Personally I think the guy was a Shoe ite.
BUSH AVOIDS IRAQI TRAPS
At a news conference in Baghdad Iraq, an irate Iraqi journalist stood up and threw both his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush, who easily ducked the flying shoes. Bush being his usually humorous self said “I easily avoided both those traps” The Iraqi journalists who were stumped by the President’s response, asked “what do you mean when you say traps? Do you think there was a plot to injure you?” Bush responded “heck no, not unless the New York Times was involved. Lighten up, you know, traps if his feet smelled like skunks then his shoes were traps.” After the reporters gave an embarrassed laugh and muttered a few words in Iraqi, Bush when on, “so what do you call his socks?” After the reporters gave each other bewildered looks, Bush said BAIT, and broke out in a snicker.
BUSH CHALLENGES IRAQI SHOE THROWER TO A CONTEST
President Bush tried to remain calm and treat the Iraqi reporter shoe throwing incident as a joke, but after being constantly badgered by other Iraqi reporters, he had had enough. The final straw came when a reporter mentioned that in the Iraqi culture throwing your shoes at someone is a serious insult. The President finally angrily fired back ,”well next time tell him to bring his wife’s shoes, if he wants to do some shoe throwing, we’ll toss some hoe shoes, have a nice hoe shoe game. Now down in Texas that’s what they call an insult.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Idiot!