What's Wrong With This Picture: Beat Up From The Feet Up Edition

How lazy are automotive journalists? Well, it appears that some of them just can’t resist putting their feet up. More details and a close-up after the jump.

Imagine my surprise when, during the recent Chrysler press event, I looked into the rearview mirror of my 300 “Limited” (to as many as they can sell, presumably) and saw a journo with his bare foot on the dash! Surely automotive journalists, if anyone, should be aware of what a dash airbag can do to a leg — the phrase “snap, crackle, and pop” comes to mind — but no, for this guy, airing out his foot was the primary concern.

Let’s take a closer look:

That’s at the limit of my Droid’s resolution, unfortunately. What makes it worse: there’s another dude in there with him! What is the matter with these people? Only once in my life have I permitted another journalist to remove a shoe in my presence, and that was only because she would have been knocking it against the headboard of the bed otherwise.

It’s a lousy business, I tell you, but it’s the only one we’ve got.

Edited to note: A few commenters pointed out that it would be dangerous to take rear-view-mirror photographs while driving. Here’s the uncropped source photo:

If you examine all three shots you can see that:

• We are in a long line of stopped traffic, with multiple cars ahead of us and behind us;
• I have left assured clear distance between me and the stopped van ahead in the event of a traffic mishap that could shove it and the five or six cars ahead backward, or a brake failure which could cause the van to roll backwards;
• The phone is actually held out of my range of vision so, although all traffic is stopped and no motion is occurring anywhere me, I can still spring into action should something require said action.

Do we all feel better now? Obviously I would never do something as risky as use a cameraphone unless traffic was completely stopped and there was a multiple-car buffer both front and rear. I’m glad we had that discussion! – JB