The Media Dodge the Shoe, Too

Once there was a time when a viral video hit didn't have to star the president of the United States ducking a shoe, and in those days it went something like this:

"Hamster on a Piano (Eating Popcorn)" is #4 on Time magazine's Top 10 Viral Videos for the year, but if the people could vote, it would surely be pushed down to #5 in the wake of the George Bush shoe-dodging video. Or even lower, if one of the Bush mash-ups--Curly missing W and hitting Larry with a pie gets my vote--joins the original up there in desktop heaven.

I won't take up any more pixels analyzing the meaning of the original video, because Bush's loss of face was painfully obvious from the start (Robert Dreyfuss and Robert Scheer have laid it out really well in these pages). But what also jumped out during the first few days of coverage, when cable and even network news were running the vid as if were, well, "Hamster on a Piano," were the frivolous frames the newscasts constructed for every viewing.

Though there were scads of storylines to follow on shoe-thrower Muntander al-Zaidi's motivation--from the deaths and destruction during the occupation that he had covered as a journalist to his own kidnapping and release by insurgents--most TV news anchors treated the incident as goofball comedy (that they'd toss around puns was a shoo-in) and/or gushed over Bush's athleticism ("This guy has no physical cowardice at all!" enthused Chris Matthews). I half-expected to see a panel discussion somewhere on "Why do they hit us?," but even that might have been too introspective.

Eerily enough, that tone echoes the way Bush himself sees the incident. In post-trip interviews Bush has said being shoe-d was "one of the most weird moments of my presidency," expressed befuddlement as to why it happened ("I don't know what his beef was"), and dismissed Zaidi as just another lone shoe-man, a wee Harvey Oswald, doing the typical 15-minutes-of-fame thing: "Here's a person that obviously was longing for notoriety, and he achieved it."

Which is fine for W--after all, denying the obvious is his life. But the media's habit of self-censorship has to be very deeply ingrained for it to parrot this agit prop. The flying shoe did not reveal how reviled George Bush is--everyone but George already knew that. What it really revealed was how much the corporate media considers itself to be the superego of the popular consciousness, and just how much it needs to contain that irrepressible Id called the internets.

As long as we're talking about irrepressible Ids, let's get back to Chris Matthews, whose first Hardball after the Wingtip of Mass Distraction hit the airwaves was a virtual X-ray of American media anxiety.

"From our culture, we sort of liked the way the president was nimble enough to duck it," Matthews patiently explained to his guests, al Hayat columnist Raghida Dergham and Washington Post national editor Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Matthews went on to decry, in a U.S.A! U.S.A! version of hurling shoes, those crazy Muslim hippies. "What is it in the Arab world where there's so many people available for demonstrations on a weekday?" Chris queried, as his guests blanched.

I mean...these guys all look like they got a two-day growth of beard. They're always available for demonstrations and they're always yelling in the same passionate way. Are they always ready sitting on benches ready to hit the streets with attitude? I mean, I'm kidding, but it is to us a cartoon. They put a shoe at the top of that flag pole--we laugh at this! You want to know our Western attitude? That's a joke. These guys sit around with nothing to do, drinking sweet tea, waiting for something to happen? I mean, why don't they work, why aren't they doing something?

Chandrasekaran tried to say something about "dire unemployment," but Chris big-footed on, saying over film of Iraqis at a demo: "Look, they're dancing over a shoe! ....Here's a guy who can't find the words to express his criticism of our policy, he can only speak with his shoes. Why can't he say something?"

(Zaidi did say something, of course, and rather succinctly: "This is a farewell kiss, you dog" for the first thrown shoe, and "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq" for the second. But those are the thoughts the fig-leaves are pasted over.)

On Wednesday, a New York Times op-ed by James Kenney fine-tuned Chris's point about the absurdity of other countries' insults (as Kenney imagined them), especially when they're based on picking up dirt from the ground: "In France, of course, it's a waffle....the target is even lower than a waffle, which is sometimes on the ground if it happens to fall off a plate, and the ground could be dirty, depending on the ground."

Foreigners! What will they think of next? Mika Brzezinski, cohost of MSNBC's Morning Joe, was far more gracious in diminishing the whole insult situation, saying, "I thought the president handled that so beautifully."

Other talking heads picked up on the shoes' dark undercurrents. Juan Williams told Bill O'Reilly that, yeah yeah, he gets the puns and jokes, "But on a serious level, how many American lives have been sacrificed to the cause of liberating Iraq? How much money has been spent while they're not spending their own profits from their oil? American money. So I just think it's absolutely the act of an ingrate for them to behave in this way."

I must admit, I never saw the ingrate argument coming. When CNN's Candy Crowley gingerly asked George Bush, "Was there ever a part of you that, in reflection, went, wait a second"--and here I thought she'd surely complete the sentence with "I understand why the Iraqi people are angry at me"--but instead she said, with perplexity, "We have poured billions of dollars, not to mention U.S. blood and treasure into this country, how dare this guy, even if he is a single guy?" ("Single" meaning not Zaidi's marital status but that, in Candy's eyes, his act didn't represent a group opinion, merely his own.)

Certainly, some MSM commentators got the video's message right and connected the glaring dots, but prominent instances have been hard to find. Overall, the mainstream media's inability to follow thoughts to their logical conclusion has been perfected during the Bush years. Nothing illustrates that better than the fact that after he was grabbed and beaten by security guards, Zaidi was dragged into the next room and presumably beaten again--his "cries could be heard from a nearby room," wrote the New York Times--but Western and Iraqi journalists stood by and went on with the press conference. If any of them crowded the door, tried to get a camera inside, or asked what all the screaming was about, we haven't seen or read about it.

It happens all the time, and in plain sight. When Jonathan Karl of ABC asked Dick Cheney earlier this week whether he thought that waterboarding prisoners in American custody was appropriate, and the veep answered, "I do," Karl got a scoop but he didn't follow it to its logical end by striking a comparison between Cheney and the Japanese, as well as the American, military men whom the U.S. sentenced to death for using that same form of torture. Instead, he went on with the interview.

Corporate media: It wants to know how much the hamster likes its popcorn, not why it's upside down and on its back.

Comments (16)

1. Nice post, Ms. Savan.

   If there is any one overriding indicator of the absurdity of American political society today it is probably the inanity of our so-called mainstream media. I stopped watching "the sabbath gasbags" (Calvin Trillin's fantastic term for the Sunday political blabber shows) a long time ago due to a general sense of disorientation and nausea that ensued after even brief encounters.

   But there are some occasional bright spots:

   "Should Dick Cheney be Hanged?"

   ~Rachel Maddow at MSNBC and Jonathan Karl at ABC

   Check it out at this link:

   tinyurl.com/45lkev

   I gotta admit, as much as I enjoy Colbert and The Daily Show, I like Maddow's show much more for her generally substantive approach to hard news.

   Not bad for the "MSM".

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 12/19/2008 @ 10:07pm

2. Well we Westerners have class. Used shoes can be very smelly, unsavoury things which are best not discussed in polite company, except in half embarrassed jest.

   More to the point, a cultured browneye in George's direction would have had deep cultural meaning and real significance for most of us and allowed us to focus on the grievances of this one time student activist. It would also have given W a real insight into his size 10 sole but a pair of smelly shoes being tossed around? Who can take that seriously?

   Posted by lrjones4 at 12/20/2008 @ 08:26am

3. Although I didn't agree with that shoe throwing episode at Bush, and I definitely don't regard him as a good President by any means...it was rather nasty. I fully understand the guy's position apparently he has lost family in the Iraq war and the throwing of a shoe is a way of showing the disdain/hate for that person. Unfortunately that is the sad truth of how many people feel about Bush all over the world...the only difference here is that guy got the chance to really show it. As for Cheney, that disgusting, hateful, cunning creature should be put behind bars as soon as possible....he is one pathetic excuse for a human being!!!!

   Posted by Caj at 12/20/2008 @ 10:14am

4. arabs can afford to throw shoes?

   Posted by emile duBois at 12/20/2008 @ 10:55am

5. Posted by b_kool_66 at 12/19/2008 @ 10:07pm

   Rachel Maddow has a knack for putting things in a real commonsense perspective. She is a national treasure.

   And yes Dick Cheney should be tried for war crimes. Aswell as Bush and Rumsfeld. And if found guilty, they should be hanged or imprisoned for life. That would be true justice. For they violated the highest trust. And the commission of war crimes is only one of their crimes.

   On another post I was branded as a terrorist for saying that. And told that I should be getting a visit from the Secret Service. And that I needed some time in Gitmo. What has happened to this country? Where a patriot is branded a terrorist by some people.

   And other than Rachel Maddow where is the push back on this from the MSM? These criminals are even admitting to these crimes and nothing is or seemingly will be done about it. Leaving the field wide open for the next criminals who may be elected to high office. That is what we have to fear.

   Posted by chaoszen at 12/20/2008 @ 1:41pm

6. Let's have fun! Send Bush one of your old shoes or flip flops. Do it. Tell your friends and pass the word. He can still be reached at:

   The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington DC 205000

   Posted by BushCamWildlife at 12/20/2008 @ 1:45pm

7. When I watched that journalist tossing his shoes at Bush, I found myself wishing he had crapped in his hand and tossed that. That would be something everyone could understand. And we wouldn't have all the shoe jokes..

   Posted by chaoszen at 12/20/2008 @ 1:55pm

8. see "FOR IRAQUI JOURNALIST MUNTANDER al-ZAIDI" on http://poemsonaffairsofstate.blogspot.com/

   Posted by rst2536 at 12/20/2008 @ 4:23pm

9. ~Posted by RST @ 4:23pm

   I'll just post your poem here, Bob:

   "A shoe was thrown by one reporter To strike a blow at W. Too bad he didn't lob a mortar And turn the THE MAN into fondue. The mainstream press is so housebroken They emphasized George Bush's jokin'. But throwing shoes are an attempt Iraquis use to show contempt. For what can show a man's more sordid Than soles of shoes that pick up dirt And blood from people Bush has hurt. Too bad that anger's not exported Back home where it won't be a joke When buckaroos go up in smoke. "

   Nicely done, dude.

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 12/20/2008 @ 4:51pm

10. The whole shoe throwing incident is just a sad reflection of how much Bush has alienated this country with this war!!! Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have a lot to answer for and they have done things illegally as regards the war and they should be investigated for it. I don't know if PE Obama will go along with that but I would like him to....everybody should be held accountable for wrong doings and Bush and the gang are no exception as far as I'm concerned.

    Posted by Caj at 12/20/2008 @ 5:29pm

11. Noticed this W ( post shoe throwing incident) interview in the WSJ, which sort of indicates why he is psychologically immune to all sorts of shoe throwing. But I guess the insults hurled in his direction are not altogether wasted and probably serve as some sort of therapy for those who throw them.

    "I ask the president what he's learned from his time in office -- not from a policy perspective, but as a person. His answer is unsurprising from a man who has always talked openly of his faith -- though that, too, has earned him criticism."

    "I've learned that God is good. All the time."

    Posted by lrjones4 at 12/20/2008 @ 5:53pm

12. hey, HAPPY!

    here's an investment opportunity waiting for YOU!

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?

    pid=20601085&sid=auI050ptHyPg&refer=europe

    Posted by frosty zoom at 12/20/2008 @ 6:27pm

13. I don't watch TV so I don't know if the main-stream media has covered the imprisonment of Al-Aaidi. Broken rips and other injuries just for throwing a couple of shoes? Where is the media coverage of this? Doesn't that send a imperial message from the US to the Iraqis -- We are your conquerers; No protests allowed. The Media knows Americans would reject such notions and move further towards an isolationist position. I guess it goes in the same file as dead soldiers and interviews with fired insiders. I would like Obama to levy justice when he takes office but, I have little hope of that. I'm sure he'll pull a Gerald Ford and pardon him to "Heal the country". It's the same reason that Pelosi said "Impeachment is off the table" when Dems took congress. Sorry, I got off topic. Help us Olbermann and Maddow! I YouTube those two and I'm a big fan.

    Posted by OccidentalPeninsular at 12/21/2008 @ 12:17pm

14. Posted by chaoszen at 12/20/2008 @ 1:41pm

    You go, man! I read that post, and you should not go to gitmo for hating Bush and Dick. Comanchenation is a vindictive type of person, ready to pounce on what he (or she) sees as some vague liberal weakness. That's what beer for breakfast does to you.

    Chris Matthews seems to be delusional. We've done our best to bomb that country flat, and the guy actually wonders why people are sitting around, ready to protest. That's all they have left, except to dodge bombs and blackwater.

    Check out the existentialistcowboy.com. There is no more eloquent Bush hater on the web. If possible, they should definitely be prosecuted, persecuted, and incarcerated. Send 'em to a supermax where we could pay to watch them on a webcam. Grrrr.

    Posted by ficheye at 12/22/2008 @ 03:46am

15. I am having trouble processing why Chris Matthews still has a seat on a national TV show. He's the poster child for inane, inappropriate, and just plain asinine comments that span the full range from ignorance to mean stereotypes.

    This is the same network that hired Rachel Maddow, who is perhaps the most progressive commentator in the national media. Surely they can find someone better than Matthews. Hell, I'll send them MY resume if they're that desperate.

    -Wexler

    Posted by WWWexler at 12/22/2008 @ 09:14am

16. 'Is it time for us to fling poo?'

    'Yes, now.'

    -- Two Monkeys -- the movie 'Madagascar'

    Posted by HonestLiberal at 12/22/2008 @ 09:31am