New York Times Death Spiral Watch (Tom Friedman Edition)

It's plummeting fast something awful...

Abu Muqawama watches the approaching wreck:

abu muqawama: Future TV: Did Tom Friedman really just describe Future TV as "progressive"? Really? Progressive in, uh, what way? Because it has the word "future" in its name?

Abu Muqawama thought Hizbollah shutting the station down was just as cowardly and thuggish as anyone, but let's be honest -- Future TV and al-Mustaqbal newspaper are sectarian propaganda organs for March 14th and the Hariri family.

Friedman then went on to say that Hizbollah shut down Future TV so that its "propaganda machine could dominate the airwaves." Are you kidding me? Is that the way it works in Lebanon, Tom? Have you been back since 1984? There are only two news stations there now, huh? Did LBC fold up shop and emigrate to France? And are al-Arabiyya and al-Jazeera unavailable?

Stupid stuff like this in the first four paragraphs of a newspaper column is enough to make Abu Muqawama quit reading. So if Friedman said anything smart in the rest of the column, let us know.

Update: Charlie, here. For those of you who enjoy shooting Friedman fish in a barrel (always great sport), be sure to check out this classic review of The World is Flat.

His [Friedman's] description of the early 90s:

The walls had fallen down and the Windows had opened, making the world much flatter than it had ever been--but the age of seamless global communication had not yet dawned.

How the f--- do you open a window in a fallen wall? More to the point, why would you open a window in a fallen wall? Or did the walls somehow fall in such a way that they left the windows floating in place to be opened?

Four hundred and 73 pages of this, folks. Is there no God?

Comments

[Kolohe]

If you go one more blockquote level, I believe you will be able to preempt the discoveries of the Large Hadron Collider.

[mere mortal]

The reviewer is being obtuse. Of course the references were to the Berlin Wall and Microsoft Windows.

The author must think us great fools to pretend that this excerpt was anything more offensive than purple prose.

[jm]

The review, by Matt Taibbi, cited in the update is anything but obtuse. (Read it for yourself: http://www.nypress.com/18/16/news&columns/taibbi.cfm)

Taibbi's point is that Friedman's rhetorical style is indicative of the quality of his thought. "Emboldened stupidity," Taibbi calls it.

[christofay]

As to the last question, maybe there is and unfortunately he measures time in Friedman Units as absolutely fucking nothing has changed.

[Davos Mouthpiece]

I write speeches for Very Senior Global Executives at Very Serious Global Forums -- business, government, and NGO -- and have circulated on the fringes of some of them as speech coach and last-minute speech doctor ("Mahathir Mohamad just stole my main point, now what?")

Many of these people are very intelligent, some reflective and critical, a few even wise. But the structure and ambience of the venues encourages the superficial, quotable rhetorical pirouette every bit as much as a Russert show. Like it or not, Friedman has near-perfect pitch for that setting.

[jm]

"Many of these people are very intelligent, some reflective and critical, a few even wise. But the structure and ambience of the venues encourages the superficial, quotable rhetorical pirouette every bit as much as a Russert show. Like it or not, Friedman has near-perfect pitch for that setting."

Noted. But how many of these very serious senior executives value Friedman's rhetoric for the insight it allegedly provides and how many merely recognize its value primarily as a way to market their agenda to the rubes?

[anne]

The problem is not in the style but in the thinking as such. Thomas Friedman is a supreme militarist and as before the need was to vilify Iraqis now the need is to vilify Iran. The focus here is Iran as the enemy of peace and democracy in the Middle East.

[Roger Bigod]

"Why Iraq, not Saudi Arabia or Pakistan? Because we could—period."

Do the Very Senior Executives say things like that?

[rea]

Friedman can alwasy be counted upon to mix up a tasty metaphor. . .

[MaryCh]

Friedman continues to channel the future Senator Blutarski: "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" This is unsurprising, since TF's orotundity has made him rich and famous, and keeps him in cocktail weenies. I'm jealous of his success, of course, but also I miss the Tom Friedman who wrote "From Beruit to Jerusalem."

P.S. Davos Mouthpiece: Your thumbnail bio sounds like Billmon's. Are you or do you know him, and what he's up to?

[Davos Mouthpiece]

Not Billmon, nor was meant to be (dammit). I miss him, too.