toe-touch n. a trip taken by a reporter merely to acquire the proper dateline on a story, even though all reporting is done somewhere else or by someone else. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...