TO think he's not a fucking teddy bear?

[Bunlicker]

^Friends and associates of Mr Matthew said they were astounded to hear that the genteel editor was under arrest. “He is the biggest teddy bear I know,” said one family friend.

Aibu to think this is shocking reporting?

Intentionally throwing a hammer at a person is a pretty clear indication of the man's character.

British newspaper editor 'admits he accidentally killed wife by throwing a hammer at her in their Dubai home' - The Telegraph
apple.news/ALsGp3iLhSV23LnKUEzkOFA

It is possibly that he has signed a wrongful confession and is innocent.

But the newspaper reporters don't know that and they're not saying that.

What they are doing is what they always do when a man is accused of murdering his own wife (as opposed to murdering strangers): they make it all about him and what a lovely man he is. It is this tendency MNers are complaining about and that happens equally when a man has been found red-handed in Surrey.

But the newspaper reporters don't know that and they're not saying that.

We also don't know he threw a hammer at her intentionally. It's all speculation. I doubt anyone has been able to speak to Matthew's yet. He probably hasn't even had access to a lawyer yet (judging on how past similar cases have gone).

Will you still be angry about him being described as genteel and a teddy bear if the courts find him innocent (unlikely, even if this is a forced confession)?

Amazing the contortions some people will get themselves into to find an excuse or an innocent explanation for a man's violence towards his wife.

Sadly this is the way crimes against women are often reported, by making them all about the man.

Seems relevant:

www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/sep/01/how-a-murdered-woman-became-invisible-in-the-coverage-of-her-death

You're probably right, Hurtle. He's probably completely misunderstood teddy bear who (silly him) let a hammer slip from his grasp while swinging it in his wife's direction

SonicBoomBoom

Incredible that people will accuse someone of being guilty before a court case has even begun, or any scientific evidence has been shared.

Fucking scary actually.

Violence against women should be reported accurately and fairly, but that doesn't mean it's OK to label someone as guilty without any evidence.

He was a very public figure in Dubai, the journalism will always focus more on him than on Jane. This is not necessarily due to biased reporting, it's because of the position he held. Jane's friends and relatives are probably too traumatised to speak out about her character and personality, and are most likely, support their children at this time.

deydododatdodontdeydo

That's not what I am saying at all, and I suspect you are smart enough to know that.

Hurtle, I don't think you quite get it. If it turns out that Mr Matthew is indeed an upright man and deserves all the elogia he can get, I will not be any less angry with the newspaper default position to report any murder of a woman by praising the man who is a suspect.

Where is the praise of Mrs Matthew? Where are her friends? Who is saying what a terrible thing her death was?

It's obvious, iasn't it? Teddy bears don't have opposable thumbs. So of course it was an accident. She shouldn't have asked him to put up those shelves........

Oh no poor man, accidentally killing her by throwing a hammer at her.

No, I do get it.

Trust me. I get it a lot more than many of you do. You have no idea what lengths the UAE Government go to to protect their tourism industry and ensure there is no negative press regarding their local population or their country. The media coming out of this will be very tightly controlled, and all the UK media is based on the UAE media reporting.

As I said before:

"He was a very public figure in Dubai, the journalism will always focus more on him than on Jane. This is not necessarily due to biased reporting, it's because of the position he held. Jane's friends and relatives are probably too traumatised to speak out about her character and personality, and are most likely, support their children at this time."

Amazing the contortions some people will get themselves into to find an excuse or an innocent explanation for a man's violence towards his wife.

Yes it really is. And as I said upthread I would expect someone to have done his degree to have a high standard of the language before his 30 years living there.

But I'm sure it was him being forced to sign a confession. Teddy bear that he is

Bunlicker Have you ever been to the UAE?

You don't need any grasp on written Arabic to live there.

Jane's friends and relatives are probably too traumatised to speak out about her character and personality, and are most likely, support their children at this time

That's a pretty big "probably" there. Seems strange that every single one of her relatives and friends are too traumatised to talk about her, but all of his friends are apparently untramatised by these events. All of her friends and relatives are busy supporting their children and cannot therefore give a quote about her, but none of his friends and relatives are supporting the children so are free to talk about what a wonderful character he was. Do none of his friends have an opinion on her character or do the journalists just not care?

Screen grabs from Arabic studies degrees of the first theee universities offered up by google.

Advanced Arabic.

I'm doing a similar degree and should leave with the ability to work at university level in that language.

"all of his friends are apparently untramatised by these events."

All of his friends haven't spoken out about him, or this, actually. A small handful have; at least two of them were colleagues from the Gulf News.

Her friends (and their mutual friends) have actually spoken about this on social media. However, right now, most people's concern is for their children, and family.

I don't give a shit about lazy expats who refuse to learn the language of the country they're in after 30 years. He should have been fluent when he got there

Neither of those degrees were his Univeristy 30 years ago. Not entirely sure what you are trying to prove; yes some universities teach Arabic language - that doesn't mean he studied it and it doesn't mean he was fluent in Arabic writing either.

I don't give a shit about lazy expats who refuse to learn the language of the country they're in after 30 years.

So you don't give a shit about his wife? You are happy to call her lazy?

Most expats in the middle east are not fluent in written Arabic. By most, I mean 98%.

Do you know the guy turtle is that what this is about?

And whilst we are talking about Arabic language at University, which dialects are they teaching "fluency" in writing? The ones specific to the UAE?

My point was we aren't talking about them.

We're talking about a murderer who understood what he signed.

The majority of expats who go there are going for a specific trade, not those with Arabic studies has a degree.

Keep bending over backwards to defend the teddy bear

No, you are making an assumption that he understood what he signed. You have no idea that he could understand written arabic - as i said previously most expats don't have any grasp on written Arabic - demonstrated by all the previous examples of forced signed confessions.

Bunlicker And, your point is what? He studied Arabic and Islamic Studies - that is not the same as studying an Arabic language course.

Do you not understand the difference between Islamic studies and Arabic language? Do you think that Islam is just one dialect of Arabic language? What about their arts, their food, their culture, their trade, the politics?