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I was surprised to see in the November 10 Issue of the New Yorker a fawning article by Ian Parker about Friedman, "The Bright Side: Thomas Friedman's Green Dream." Ian Parker allowed Friedman to flim-flam him that he, Friedman, was "really, really torn" about the war, citing a column of January 26, 2003 where he said we'd either find we had "won the Arab Germany or the Arab Yugoslavia" and claiming that his columns showed his struggle about justifying the war. Apparently Parker did not read the March 12, 2003 NYT column that said those who did not think confronting Saddam was legitimate were "knee-jerk liberals and pacifists," and of course Friedman did not draw his attention to this. Friedman pulled a fast one by referring only to his columns, although even they are bad enough, as Glenn has extensively documented. The TV interview showed him salivating at the time at the prospect of taking out a big stick and shoving it down some Muslim throats.
Friedman is now going to take his new environmental credentials and run for more books, and it appears he will get away with it. The New Yorker joins the list of media sources that have lost credibility.
