Opinion Forum

The Great Shoe Crisis

December 16th, 2008

Not since Imelda Marcos’ closet was thrown open have shoes been such a hot item in the news. Some young brain-dead Iraqi journalist (actually, a stringer) throws his shoes at President Bush and calls him a dog–two prime insults in the Arab world. Fine. It’s offensive, as it was intended to be, and all Americans ought to take it that way, no matter who the president is. I think most do. But, here come the tiresome liberals of the left, including most of the media, who somehow find deeper meaning in such primitive silliness.

As Patterico says in this item in Patterico’s Pontifications regarding The Los Angeles Times’ excited front-page coverage of the event:

Marvel at a paper that marvels at the phenomenon that “many” Arabs admire a man who threw a shoe at the President of the United States. It’s as if it’s prima facie evidence of presidential wrongdoing that “many” Arabs support an act of violence against Bush. …as long as it’s Bush who’s the target, then it’s good for a cutesy front-page story–one that they’d never do if the target had been Obama.

The media is always eager to report on anyone who hates President Bush because, after all, they hate him, too. Often that means they have to report on hysterical, wild-eyed Arab Muslims rioting in the streets, solemnly drawing meaning that isn’t justified. Lacking a stone to heave at Bush, journalists fling any pebble they can find.

To the LA Times’ credit they did report today that:

…across the Arab world, the reaction was mixed. In Iraq, many journalists said the act reflected poorly on them, and some Iraqis who consider Bush a hero for ousting Hussein were mortified.

This comes closer to the truth. There are a few Arab Muslim fruitcakes who hate the U.S. and everything it stands for. There are many more Arabs who support those ideas, even though they don’t get directly involved. But the majority of people in the Arab world, I suspect, are like everyone else. They just want to get on with life with a minimum of strife and disruption. The crazies in their midst and those who support them just make life harder, and I suspect most Arabs wish they would behave themselves.

I wish our media would begin to behave themselves, too. They’re like punch-drunk fighters, sweating and drooling, blood in their eyes, swinging wildly long after the last round has ended. Bush is going back to Texas; Obama is moving into the White House. You won. Get over it. Try reporting straight news for a change.

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Bush, Iraq, press, terrorism
Categories: Life, Media, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

One Response to “The Great Shoe Crisis”

doris | December 17th, 2008 at 6:22 am

Sorry to say,I think that is wrong,I am positive that the news would’ve reported the shoe incident if any important person had been the victim,especially Obama.This is just the news, a crazed Arab throwing his shoes and being prepared to die to do so,is news,in any society,left or right.