"Good morning. What now? The day after the world learned of the death of Abu Musab Zarqawi. The question remains, who will take his place and will it spark revenge attacks?"
Almost ten minutes later, at 7:09AM EDT, Lauer prefaced an interview with Karen Hughes, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, by asking the following question:
"So how will the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi impact the battered image of the United States around the world?"
In addition to this now familiar negativity, the Today show also came up with a new angle: How does the death of a brutal thug make his supporters feel? At 7:06AM, Mr. Lauer noted that while many people were happy that Zarqawi was dead, "his supporters are feeling quite a range of emotions, from sorrow to anger to pride." NBC reporter Martin Fletcher enlightened his audience to the emotional roller coaster that Zarqawi fans are on:
"They believe Zarqawi has achieved the honor of being a martyr and he is now in paradise. At home in Zarqa though, his family received the news of his death in sorrow even though they knew that sooner or later he would be killed. At first, they were hostile to the press, but when we approached them politely they allowed us to film them in their mourning tent."
Well, it’s a good thing that NBC is polite to terrorist supporters, after all, we don’t want them to dislike us. Apparently a genteel attitude isn’t enough, as Fletcher soon realized:
"Back in the family's mourning tent in Zarqa, our welcome quickly wore thin. The children turned on us, chasing us away with stones and rocks, while chanting God is great."
Although there was a brief mention of Zarqawi’s crimes, such as the Jordanian hotel bombings, Fletcher mainly focused on those who supported the terrorist’s cause. He closed the segment by noting the man’s popularity in his hometown of Zarqa:
"Here at least, Zarqawi is a hero. Zarqawi's followers want nothing more then to be like him, to kill Americans and ultimately to die as a hero. As one person we spoke to said, there are many more Zarqawis."
