WaPo: Shoe-Tossing 'Hero' Causes Another Bush 'P.R. Fiasco'

Much like the New York Times, the Washington Post highlighted the new "hero" status of the shoe-throwing journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi on Tuesday's front page. Post reporter Sudarsan Raghavan, a specialist in the bad-for-Bush genre of Post reports (see here and here) boldly compared the shoe-tossing to the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the list of huge Bush P.R fiascoes:

The shoe assault turned Bush's trip to Iraq into a public relations fiasco, overshadowing the White House's message of impending victory in a long and unpopular war. The incident served as a bookend to Bush's flamboyant 2003 arrival aboard an aircraft carrier decorated with a banner reading "Mission Accomplished," which was meant as a declaration of victory but soon became a symbol of U.S. hubris as the war continued.

Speaking of "hubris," Raghavan found absolutely no room in his story to entertain the theory that this shoe-tossing spasm could be viewed as proof of a vibrant democratic culture in Iraq, but that might acknowledge that some mission was accomplished, and the Post doesn’t like to admit any progress in Iraq. He quoted Bush briefly, but then turned back to highlighting the throb of anti-Bush public opinion:

He rejected suggestions that the incident symbolized wider Iraqi displeasure with his administration and the conduct of the war. "I don't think you can take one guy throwing shoes and say this represents a broad movement in Iraq," Bush told reporters aboard Air Force One after leaving Baghdad. "You can try to do that if you want to. I don't think it would be accurate."

But many people are doing that -- in the blogosphere, on television, in editorials. Users of the Facebook networking Web site created groups in support of Zaidi, including one called "I'm a fan of the great hero who hit Bush with his shoes in Baghdad" that had more than 9,000 members Monday night.

The al-Baghdadia television network, which employs Zaidi, broadcast his photo and martial anthems. Arab satellite TV channels and Web sites repeatedly played the scene of Bush ducking as the shoes flew past.

This is not an objective pack of journalists, as Raghavan later emphasized:

On the air, Zaidi referred to the U.S. military presence as "the occupation" and was known to call Bush "the devil." Saif al-Deen al-Kaisi, an editor at al-Baghdadia, recalled a conversation a year and half ago in which Zaidi said, "I hope to meet Bush and hit him with my shoes."

Only one Arab in the story (Hassan Jarrah, a government employee in Najaf) opposed the shoe-tossing as an indecent, unreasonable act. There are no American journalism experts offered to assess whether this is exemplary press-conference behavior in their opinion. Instead, Raghavan gratuitously quoted the daughter of Moammar Gaddafi, celebrating the act as a "human rights" victory.

In Libya, a charity led by Moammar Gaddafi's daughter Aisha announced it would give Zaidi an award for bravery and urged the Iraqi government to free him. "What he did represents a victory for human rights across the world," said the organization, Wa Attassimou.

Raghavan did not tell Post readers that this alleged human rights advocate joined Saddam Hussein’s team of defense lawyers in 2004. He didn’t mention any little problems with Gaddafis and human rights, like the Libyan bombing of a West German disco that killed two American soldiers in 1986, or their involvement in the killing of 270 people in the Lockerbie plane explosion of 1988.