HARD HITTING SCRUTINY WATCH….There are lots of places you can go for serious, nuanced commentary about the death of King Fahd and its meaning for the future of Saudi Arabia, but since all of them boil down to “It’s hard to say,” why bother? Instead, here is Abu Aardvark’s look at how the Saudi Arabian media has handled Fahd’s death:
Let’s see how al-Hayat handled it: “a hero in the liberation of Kuwait”… “an era of development”… “history will remember his courage”… “the smartest son of his generation” (what, not the smartest man in history? Is this veiled criticism?) (ha, ha, get it? “veiled”?) (no, it’s funny because one of al-Arabiya’s headlines is ? get this ? “Saudi women: unprecedented achievements in the era of King Fahd”! Really… could I make this up?) (Coincidentally, the Women of Elaph were absent for the second day running… really, is not showing half-dressed young women what Fahd would have wanted?)
Ugh. I’m feeling a bit ill.
There’s more where that came from if you want a broader overview of sycophantic Gulf coverage of the king’s death. As the Aardvark says, “Thank the gods for al-Jazeera, today.”
