One thing that strikes me about reporters who go to the middle east is that they remain incredibly ignorant about the local customs and shit. Like not only do they not speak the language, but even if they have provably spent years there, and done some genuine reporting work, they still don’t like… know anything. I say this as a person who has never been to the middle east, but has lived in a ghetto for a couple of years.
From the Middle East. It’s because most of them live in a parallel society. They only hang out in the social circles of the bourgeoisie. If they have kids they go to foreign schools. When they go out the go to western modeled establishments. They shuttle back and forth between 5 star hotels. They only have foreign friends or their local friends are westernized bourgeoisie or petite bourgeoisie. When a foreign correspondent goes to the middle east they import their entire social environment with them. That’s not the case when they’re in Europe for example.
