George W. Bush, was the target of a shoe-throwing reporter in Iraq today.
Fox News treats it as ethnocentrically as possible.
Note the tone Gregg Jarrett uses. He calls it “truly bizarre.” Let’s think about this for a moment. Is it bizarre for someone to voice disagreement with a leader? Is it bizarre when protesters burn effigies? Is it bizarre when a blogger or pundit openly criticizes a politician? This is bizarre because “middle eastern” customs are bizarre to Greg Jerret, or whoever put those words in his teleprompter.
The tone is light, like there’s nothing serious about this, nothing serious about the custom.
In the end, Jarrett is a little cheeky, saying, “by the way, throwing shoes at somebody, that’s a supreme insult in the middle east. You can only imagine the fate if Saddam Hussein was still in charge.” That’s to remind Fox viewers that Bush did the right thing in eliminating Hussein. Of course, if her were still in charge, the shoe thrower probably would have been commended for protesting what many Iraqis still see as an unwelcome invasion of their country. Plus, think about the tone specifically when Jarrett says “that’s a supreme insult in the middle east.” To me, it sounds like he’s mocking it, like that belief is of no value.
Incidentally, what does “alert” mean? Is this story really something we need to be alerted about? Maybe if he was hit. Maybe if the shoes turned out to be bombs. I just don’t think this constitutes the kind of situation that requires such urgency. To me, it’s more of a “by the way” story or a “you might be interested in this” story.
