NBC News?published?a bizarre and apparently-not-satirical piece on its website today about Paul Bremer, imperial ruler of Iraq for a year after the U.S. invasion. Bremer, who the authors gush is a “youthful 72,” has taken up painting, and obviously this is newsworthy. Though he is modest about his skills, Bremer’s work has fetched up to $800, a figure that surely has nothing to do with his name and is solely based on the quality of the art.
What could possibly motivate a news organization to publish an adoring, 1,000-word piece on the artwork of Paul Bremer? Perhaps they just wanted to do a nice light feature for this holiday weekend. Bremer’s ruminations about French impressionism are just so much more pleasant than, say,?this:
Baghdad: Attacks killed five people in town squares in Iraq on Friday, including four who died when a suicide bomber set off his vehicle rigged with explosives just before midday prayers.
The latest violence, which left dozens wounded, comes as Iraq struggles with a surge in violence coinciding with a long-running government deadlock and months of protests among the Sunni Arab minority.
Iraq has seen a surge in violence since the start of the year, with the UN reporting more than 2,500 people killed from April through June, the highest such level since 2008.