The Shoe Narrative

The endlessly vapid, diversionary, and childish coverage of the disaffected Iraqi journalist who flung his shoes at President Bush during a press conference in Baghdad is noteworthy only because the media has proven again it loves melodramatic anecdotes that can be superimposed upon a geopolitical situation to "prove" a preconceived bias. By showing the video exhaustively and with garrulous commentary, the media is trying to magnify its importance and use it to construct a narrative of two parts: (1.) the acts of the Iraqi journalist are those of righteous indignation against his oppressor (by extension the oppressor of the Arab world), (2.) George W. Bush (by extension the United States), who deserved to be the recipient of an expression of rage in a Middle Eastern fashion because he (we) destroyed Iraq, and the powerful are always deserving of humiliation, comeuppance, overthrow, etc.

In short, never underestimate the ability of the media to squeeze geostrategic insight out of a meaningless moment of mania.