February 5th, 2014
I guess that to really despise Friedman, you have to work near him:
One current Times staffer told The Observer, “Tom Friedman is an embarrassment. I mean there are multiple blogs and Tumblrs and Twitter feeds that exist solely to make fun of his sort of blowhardy bullshit.” . . .
Another Times reporter brought up Mr. Friedman, unsolicited, toward the end of a conversation that was generally positive about the editorial page: “I never got a note from Andy or anything like that. But I will say, regarding Friedman, there’s the sense that he’s on cruise control now that he’s his own brand. And no one is saying, ‘Hey, did you see the latest Friedman column?’ in the way they’ll talk about ‘Hey, Gail [Collins] was really funny today.’”
Asked if this stirring resentment toward the editorial page might not just be garden variety news vs. edit stuff or even the leanings of a conservative news reporter toward a liberal editorial page, one current Times staffer said, “It really isn’t about politics, because I land more to the left than I do to the right. I just find it …”
He paused for a long time before continuing and then, unprompted, returned to Mr. Friedman. “I just think it’s bad, and nobody is acknowledging that they suck, but everybody in the newsroom knows it, and we really are embarrassed by what goes on with Friedman. I mean anybody who knows anything about most of what he’s writing about understands that he’s, like, literally mailing it in from wherever he is on the globe. He’s a travel reporter. A joke. The guy gets $75,000 for speeches and probably charges the paper for his first-class airfare.”
Another former Times writer, someone who has gone on to great success elsewhere, expressed similar contempt (and even used the word “embarrass”) and says it’s longstanding.
“I think the editorials are viewed by most reporters as largely irrelevant, and there’s not a lot of respect for the editorial page. The editorials are dull, and that’s a cardinal sin. They aren’t getting any less dull. As for the columnists, Friedman is the worst. He hasn’t had an original thought in 20 years; he’s an embarrassment. He’s perceived as an idiot who has been wrong about every major issue for 20 years, from favoring the invasion of Iraq to the notion that green energy is the most important topic in the world even as the financial markets were imploding. Then there’s Maureen Dowd, who has been writing the same column since George H. W. Bush was president.”
Of course, I suspect that in response Friedman would just point to this and say, “Scoreboard.”
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Isn’t TF the author of My Brain is Flat?
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Anyone who thinks the boring Times is held back by Friedman: well, you haven’t opened the paper’s editorial snooze-fest in thirty years.
The NYT editorial pages are fantastic, gripping, yarn-ripping stuff: one time in seventy five. The rest of the time, well, just about every conservative news analyst (best: Steyn) has noted the editorial boardroom of the Times is the scientifically proven cure for insomnia.
Picking out a Krugman/Friedman/Dowd is useless. One can only assume the “Hey, Gail [Collins] was really funny today,’” comment was made in an alternate universe where Obama has a sharp little goatee and the sky is purple: they don’t have a good writer. Not one.
The entire NYT is one of those fight scenes where the guy is hit with a bullet and dies *veery* *slowly*.
Much Schaden will be Freuded when they finally die.
Mike Collins February 6, 2014 at 8:15 pm
That and his 80s book, From Banal to Ridiculous.