The newspaper in the way is worse.
The late Jock Ellis told me of a trainee at Renfrew who cleared an aircraft to land without looking out from behind his newspaper. Jock asked him about the steamroller on the runway, so the trainee instructed the aircraft to overshot due to the runway being occupied by a steamroller. A no coffee, no biscuits moment with the SATCO followed and the trainee emptied his locker