On Thursday, the New York Post, Mediaite, and several other online outlets reported that CNN's live feed of the Pope's address to Congress caught a woman saying off-camera that she wanted to "take my shoe off and throw it at his head" – moments before the pontiff entered the House chamber. The threat was also caught on the audio of MSNBC and Fox News (though on-air personalities were also speaking at the same time), as well as ABC's local Washington, DC affiliate, ABC 7. [video clips from CNN & ABC7 below]
Correspondent David K. Li spotlighted in his write-up for the New York Post that "the threat of shoe throwing evoked memories of President George W. Bush, who skillfully dodged shoes at a Dec. 14, 2008, press conference in Baghdad. The shoe toss was considered an extreme act of disrespect."
Mediaite's Alex Griswold underlined that "it's worth noting that nothing the woman said necessarily indicates that Francis was the target of the shoe. Keep in mind that while Francis was in shoe range, so was Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid."
One wonders if TV and print news outlets will pick up on this reporting and cover it like they covered the attempted footwear attack on former President Bush.
