Thomas Friedman
Thomas Loren Friedman (born
July 20,
1953) is an American
journalist,
columnist, and
author, currently working as an
Op-Ed contributor to the
New York Times. His columns, concentrating mainly on
foreign affairs, appear on Wednesdays and Fridays. Friedman is known for advocating a compromise peace between
Israel and the
Palestinians, modernization of the
Arab world, 'green' issues, and
globalization, while sometimes remarking on their potential pitfalls to the US economy and society. His books address various aspects of international politics and major future shifts in the
World order, from a centrist,
neoliberal perspective on the political spectrum. Friedman is a three-time winner of the
Pulitzer Prize (
1983,
1988, and
2002), and in
2004, he was awarded the
Overseas Press Club Award for lifetime achievement and the honorary title,
Order of the British Empire (OBE), by
Queen Elizabeth II.
Friedman was born in the
Minneapolis,
Minnesota suburb of
St. Louis Park. As a child, he attended a
Jewish summer camp where a young
Abe Foxman was a counselor. In high school, Friedman wrote for his school's paper
The Echo, including one article in which he interviewed
Ariel Sharon, then an Israeli general, and later, Defence Minister and Prime Minister of Israel.
He received a B.A. degree in Mediterranean studies from
Brandeis University in 1975.After college, Friedman attended
St Antony's College at
Oxford University on a
Marshall scholarship, receiving an
MA in
Middle Eastern studies. Friedman lists Professor
Albert Hourani as among his important academic influences.
After graduating he joined the
London bureau of
United Press International, staying there for a year before being dispatched to
Beirut, where he stayed from
1979 to
1981. He was then hired by the
New York Times, which re-dispatched him to Beirut in
1982, where he soon witnessed the first phase of the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Friedman's coverage of the war, and in particular the
Sabra and Shatila massacre, won him the
Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.
He was assigned to
Jerusalem from
1984 to
1988, where he won another Pulitzer for his coverage of the
first Palestinian Intifada, following this posting with a book,
From Beirut to Jerusalem, describing his experiences in the Middle East.
During the administration of
George H.W. Bush, he covered
Secretary of State James Baker; following the election of
Bill Clinton, he became the
Times' White House correspondent. After covering the White House until
1994, he covered the intersection of
foreign policy and
economics. He then moved to the op-ed page of the
Times as a foreign affairs columnist in
1995.
One of Friedman's theses is that individual nations must sacrifice some degree of economic sovereignty to global institutions (such as capital markets, and
multinational corporations), in order to achieve Western-style economic prosperity. Friedman termed these restrictions the "Golden Straitjacket."
He has been widely praised for his strong stance on America's need to become more energy independent, and lead in technologies concerning 'green' compatibility. He believes this would force the authoritarian rulerships in the Middle East to be coerced out of power as their petrodollars deplete by a growing younger and albeit distressed youth population, this he believes is the key to the spread of governmental stability and modernization in an autocratic and theocratic part of the world. This (energy dependence) will help strengthen America's economy by basing its energy infrastructure on domestic products, and ease the tensions in the burgeoning global energy demand, exacerbated by emerging power hungry markets, such as India and China.
While Friedman is an advocate of globalization, he also points out (in
The Lexus and the Olive Tree) the need for a country to preserve its local traditions even as it globalizes, a process he describes as "globalization". For example, in his attack on
General Motors, a criticism of him is that he fails to grasp that the purchasing power of domestic labor is the key driver in economic output as supposed by some economists.
However, Friedman argues that by exporting low-skill, low-wage jobs to foreign countries, more advanced, higher-skill technical jobs will open up, creating niches for those displaced by the outsourcing. He theorizes that as long as those whose jobs are outsourced continue to further their own education, specializing in their own specific field, they will find better paying and higher-skilled jobs.
After the
September 11, 2001 attacks, Friedman's writing focused more on the threat of
terrorism and the Middle East, where he spent 3 years subsequently, for which he won the
2002 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary ("for his clarity of vision, based on extensive reporting, in commenting on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat"). These columns were collected and published as the book "Longitudes and Attitudes." However his reportings on post-9/11 topics, lead him to diverge from his prior interests, on technological advances and globalisation, but by 2004 his visits to Bangalore, and Beijing gave him a reality check into the overwhelming shifts in the global structure of wealth and prosperity, tilted towards the populations, which he labelled as '3 billion people', that came into the global arena. This precluded his bestseller synopsis and analysis on globalisation,
The World is Flat.
Friedman supported the
2003 invasion of Iraq, saying that the establishment of a democratic state in the Middle East might force other countries to liberalize and modernize as well, although he has since expressed alarm over the conduct of the war by the
George W. Bush administration. Nevertheless, until his August 4th 2006 piece (see below), his columns remained at least open to the possibility of a positive outcome to the Iraq conflict. In January 2004 he participated in a forum on
Slate.com called "
Liberal Hawks Reconsider the Iraq War," in which he stated:
"the right reason for this war, as I argued before it started, was to oust Saddam's regime and partner with the Iraqi people to try to implement the Arab Human Development report's prescriptions in the heart of the Arab world. That report said the Arab world is falling off the globe because of a lack of freedom, women's empowerment, and modern education. The right reason for this war was to partner with Arab moderates in a long-term strategy of dehumiliation and redignification."
After the
7 July 2005 London bombings, Friedman called for the
U.S. State Department to begin producing a "War of Ideas Report" that would spotlight religious leaders and writers advocating violence as well as anyone who suggests that "imperialism, zionism, colonialism or Iraq" explains why the terrorists acted. "These excuse makers are just one notch less despicable than the terrorists and also deserve to be exposed," he said in his
22 July column. Critics at
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting point to this as part of a wider trend to marginalise and censor critics of U.S. foreign policy.[
1]
The
neologism Friedman, meaning a period of six months, has been coined in mock tribute to Friedman, based on his repeated optimistic predictions that within six months from the time of his writing, the success or failure of the American project in Iraq would be known. [
2],[
3]
The term "Friedman" has also garnered Thomas an entry in the
Urban Dictionary: [
4]
"A length of time nominally lasting six months.
The phrase is used to mock New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, who has repeatedly stated that (paraphrase) "the next six months in Iraq should determine the outcome of the US operation there." Fair.org shows Friedman making statements to that effect in Nov 03, Jun 04, Oct 04, Nov 04, Sep 05, etc."In his August 4, 2006, New York Times column [
5], Friedman announced that the effort to transform Iraq by military invasion has failed and that it is time for the US to admit failure and disengage:
[T]hree years of efforts to democratize Iraq are not working. ..Whether for Bush reasons or Arab reasons, it is not happening.
In November 1978, Thomas Friedman married Ann Bucksbaum, a native of Des Moines and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University.[
6] Bucksbaum's family is reportedly one of the hundred richest in America: Ann's father,
Matthew Bucksbaum, is the chairman of the board for
General Growth Properties, a real estate development group he and his late brother founded in 1954. The Bucksbaums helped pioneer the development of shopping centers.[
7] Bucksbaum family assets are estimated at 2.7 billion dollars, and include some 200 million square feet of mall space.[
8][
9]
Ann and Thomas Friedman live in a Washington, D.C. suburb in Maryland, in "a palatial 11,400-square-foot house, now valued at $9.3 million, on a 7½-acre parcel just blocks from I-495 and Bethesda Country Club," according to the July 2006 issue of the
Washingtonian magazine. The Friedmans have two daughters: Orly and Natalie Friedman, who are 21 and 18, respectively. Both daughters were born in Israel while Friedman served as New York Times correspondent.[
10][
11]
Friedman has also hosted several documentaries for the
Discovery Channel from various locations around the world. In "Straddling the Fence" (2003), he visited the
West Bank and spoke to Israelis and Palestinians about the
Israeli West Bank barrier and its impact on their lives. Also in 2003, "Thomas L. Friedman Reporting: Searching for the Roots of 9-11" aired on the Discovery Times Channel. This program investigated the reason for Muslim hatred of the United States, and how the Sept. 11th attacks in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon were viewed in the Muslim world. In "The Other Side of Outsourcing" (2004), he visited a call center in
Bangalore, interviewing the young Indians working there, and then traveled to an impoverished rural part of
India, where he debated the pros and cons of globalization with locals (this trip spawned his eventual bestselling book "The World is Flat"). In "Does Europe Hate Us?" (2005), he traveled through
Britain,
France and
Germany, talking with academics, journalists, Marshall and Rhodes scholars, young Muslims and others about the nature of the strained relationship between Europe and the United States. Friedman's most recent documentary, "Addicted to Oil" premiered at the Silverdocs Film Festival at 5:30 PM on June 16, 2006, and aired on Saturday, June 24, at 10 p.m. ET on the Discovery Times Channel. In it he examines the geopolitical, economic, and environmental consequences of petroleum use and ways that green technologies such as alternative fuels and energy, efficiency, and conservation can reduce oil dependence.
Friedman's Discovery Channel documentaries are available on DVD through the Discovery Channel Store.
Friedman's books have sold remakably well, making him one of the most successful modern non-fiction authors. For instance,
The World is Flat has been on the New York Times bestseller list since its publication in April 2005, and since July 2006, has sold more than 2 million copies.
*
The World Is Flat: A Brief History Of The Twenty-first Century (2005) ISBN 0374292884
*
Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11 (2002) ISBN 0374190666
*
The Lexus and the Olive Tree (1999) ISBN 0374185522
*
From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989) ISBN 0374158940, (updated 1990) ISBN 0385413726
* Friedman is an avid fan of golf.
* Friedman has dedicated many of his works to his two daughters.
*
Industry Pioneers*[
12] "Thomas Friedman"
*[
13] "Billionare Scion Tom Friedman"
*
Thomas L. Friedman official Web site
*
New York Times columns*
interview by Charles Rose on his book :
the world is flat.
*[http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/merupert/Anti-Friedman.htm The Anti-Friedman
*
The Wooden Robot takes on Thomas Friedman
*
Washington Week biography*
Amazon.com interview*
Thomas Friedman: What makes the Timesman a great columnist? Not that peace proposal.*
Interview with Oliver Burkeman of The Guardian*
Slate forum: Liberal Hawks Reconsider the Iraq War*
FLATMAN I'm sorry, but the world's still round criticism by
Siddharth Varadarajan*
The Geraldo Rivera of the New York Times criticism By
Edward S. Herman, Z Magazine, November 2003
*
The Moustache of Understanding cartoon parody by David Rees
*
Friedman's September 18, 2002 column "Iraq Upside-Down" with commentary by Aron Shtull-Trauring*
"Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man" parody site*
"T. Friederman Goes to Turkey" a pop culture reference to Friedman*
"The Strategic Class" by Ari Berman discusses Friedman's role in underwriting the agenda of pro-war Democrats*
"Back at the Wheel. Thomas Friedman just loves to grind the gears" A critique of Thomas Friedman's writing style by
Matt Taibbi*
"FLATHEAD: The peculiar genius of Thomas L Friedman" A critique of "The World is Flat" by
Matt Taibbi*
"The Quest for Symbols" by Said Shirazi - A rhetoric analysis of Friedman's prose
*
The World Is Made of Nations, Not Markets by Nancy Spannaus
Executive Intelligence Review*
"Thomas L. Friedman Reporting: Searching for the Roots of 9-11" The New York Times synopsis of the Discovery Channel documentary of the same name.
* Video of Thomas Friedman speaking at the World Bank Group's 2006 Private Sector Development Forum on
"Where is the World Going?"*
Tom Friedman's Flexible Deadlines A review of Friedman's punditry with respect to Iraq by FAIR
*
A Critical Approach to Friedman: When Man and Metaphor Fall Flat*
Democracy Now Interview with Amy Goodman (starts approx 46:23)*
Webby Award Person of the Year 2006 Podcast interview from the awards ceremony
*
2002 Pulitzer Prize winning works*
Thomas Friedman's Toxic Tourism
