News Service from House Harris

US: An old skill for modern journalists - shoe throwing

WASHINGTON, SHNS - The modern journalist needs all sorts of skills - blogging, twittering, videographing, as well as being a Van Cliburn on the laptop - to which we might soon add the neglected art of shoe throwing.

An Iraqi TV journalist named Muntadhar al-Zeidi made himself a global celebrity by throwing his shoes at President Bush during a press conference in Baghdad's Green Zone.

He was only 12 feet (3.66 metres) from the president but he missed both times and frankly - and not meaning to be sexist about this - he threw like a girl. Still, in the entertainment-starved capitals of the Mideast where the bored masses welcome any excuse to get out in the streets and hop up and down, he is a hero.

He is also in jail and may stay there for a while because the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, is furious at this breach of traditional Arab standards of hospitality.

Depending in the specific charge, al-Zeidi could face a sentence of anywhere from one year to seven years in prison plus a fine, although the fine for insulting George Bush - OK, any foreign leader - translates into 17 cents US.

There are still some significant unanswered questions about the shoe-throwing incident. Did he put on clean socks because you never know when you might have to throw your shoes at somebody and you don't want to embarrass your mother? Did he put on an old pair, planning to put in for something more stylish in his expense account? Did he bring spare shoes or did he plan to spend the rest of the workday in his stocking feet or did he think the Secret Service would let him nip around behind the president to collect his footwear?

And what would al-Zeidi have done if President Bush, a former baseball executive with a much better arm, had yanked off his own wingtips and clocked him on the forehead? Actually, if he had, many Americans might have flocked into the streets to hop up and down.

It is no secret that these are dark days for journalism in general and the amount of attention al-Zeidi is getting will not go unnoticed. He works for a Cairo-based satellite TV network called al-Baghdadia.

In an era when it's tough to get news companies to pay for anything, al-Baghdadia is springing for "a team" of lawyers headed by the president of Iraq's Union of Lawyers. It's doubtful he comes cheap.

When al-Zeidi gets out of jail it will be to a round of speaking engagements, TV appearances, perhaps a book contract. And he didn't even have to file a story. If the Secret Service agrees to let bygones be bygones, he could come to this country and be praised by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC and screamed at by Bill O'Reilly on Fox. On the latter's show, he would be wise not to make any sudden moves toward his shoelaces.

The First Amendment is curiously silent on the matter of shoe throwing, and it's doubtful that somebody like Hush Puppies will endow a journalism school chair of shoe throwing.

But on a slow news day, with a career on hold and trapped in a press conference of brain numbing platitudes punctuated by an occasional outright lie, it could be real tempting to slip off the old loafers and let fly. You go first.