Ben Hubbard about fortunetellers in Lebanon

This is an annoying article on more than one front, and it has already been mocked in Arabic in Lebanon.  But: 1) of all the stories about Lebanon, this is what got Mr. Hubbard's attention? Is this not what Soviet media used to cover about America? The weird and the bizarre? I mean, there are many kooky aspects of American culture dealing with superstition and horoscopes and get-rich-quick schemes and motivational speakers and religious nuts and so on, but would that really summarize all of America?  You rarely see anything in the Times about Lebanese culture (they specialize in covering enemies of Israel and their danger and the Syrian "revolution" based on puppets of Saudi regime in Lebanon), but the found this? And notice that he did not provide the counter narrative: that there is a big trend in Lebanese culture mocking such phenomenon: since he studied Arabic, he should peruse social media to see how young Lebanese mock those fortune tellers almost daily.