ThomasFriedman

NYT's Friedman: Castro's 'Idiocy' Complaints About Conservative Candidates 'Not a Good Sign' for GOP

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:03:00 +0000

Clay Waters

First it was New York Times reporters who were quoting unelected Cuban dictator Fidel Castro insulting the 'idiocy and ignorance' of the candidates for the GOP nomination, in a January 26 story. Now columnist Thomas Friedman gets in on the act, quoting Castro approvingly in Sunday's 'Made in the World.'

Boosting Obama, Landler Quotes Zakaria's Praise, Omits He Advises Prez

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:12:00 +0000

Mark Landler gushed: "In a delicious coincidence for the White House, the author is Robert Kagan, a neoconservative historian and commentator who advises Mr. Romney." Landler also used commentator Fareed Zakaria to praise Obama without noting his own reporting that Zakaria has advised Obama on foreign policy.

Clay Waters

Times reporter Mark Landler's lead story for Saturday's National section boosted Obama (and slapped down Mitt Romney) via the unlikely topic of the president's reading material: 'Obama Buttresses Case for U.S. Resilience With Book From Unlikely Source.'

Friedman: Castro's 'Idiocy' Complaints About Conservative Candidates 'Not a Good Sign' for GOP

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:43:00 +0000

Columnist Thomas Friedman forwards Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's insulting the "idiocy and ignorance" of Republican candidates, adding "When Marxists are complaining that your party's candidates are disconnected from today's global realities, it's generally not a good sign." But isn't it a very good sign when dictators disagree with you?

Clay Waters

Thomas Friedman Says GOP Looking for Someone as 'Smart and Mellifluous' as Obama

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:09:00 +0000

Friedman told David Gregory on Meet the Press: "And I think Newt's rise is speaking to us. And what it says to me is, is that I think there's a lot of Republicans who are starved for a candidate for their party who would be able to debate Obama head-to-head, they think is as smart and mellifluous as the president."

Tim Graham

Appearing on Sunday's Meet the Press, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman brought his usual lecturer's arrogance and said he was really worried about President Obama's chances at re-election: 'I really, really worry about him.' The answer, of course, is more 'stimulus' and increased spending on overpriced college tuitions: 'I really hope he gives us a big choice.'

What's This 'Us' Business? Friedman Laments of Obama: 'He's Never Leveraged Us'

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:02:00 +0000

On Charlie Rose, a roundtable including Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson and columnist Tom Friedman lamented President Obama's inability to convince Americans of his liberal agenda. Abramson faulted only Obama's communications failures, not the big-government policies themselves, while Friedman initially seemed to fret that Obama had not successfully used Times liberals like himself to push his agenda: "He has never leveraged us. He never - us, I mean the American people."

Clay Waters

PBS talk show host Charlie Rose hosted New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson, Washington Bureau Chief David Leonhardt, and columnist Thomas Friedman on Friday night to discuss domestic politics and the year's events around the world. Friedman in particular was agitated about Obama's failure to sell his wonderful proposals and complained of the president: 'He has never leveraged us.

Friedman: Netanyahu's Standing Ovation in Congress 'Bought and Paid for by the Israel Lobby'

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:56:00 +0000

Come again? "I sure hope that Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, understands that the standing ovation he got in Congress this year was not for his politics. That ovation was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby."

Clay Waters

Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who poses as a tough friend of Israel, offensively referred to the 'Israel lobby' in his Wednesday column 'Newt, Mitt, Bibi and Vladimir.'

Great Minds Think Alike...So Do New York Times Columnists

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:35:00 +0000

Times columnists can't get enough of The Onion's humor: "Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job." Not as hard as coming up with new column ideas, apparently.

Clay Waters

In Monday's edition of his 'Best of the Web' column, under the subhead "Recycling Is Garbage," Opinion Journal's James Taranto unveiled a humorous pattern of Times columnists recycling a satirical headline from The Onion that made an apparently profound point about the unfair burdens accompanying Barack Obama into office: "Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job." (Not as hard as coming up with new column ideas, apparently.)

Thomas Friedman: G.O.P. 'A Danger to Itself and to the Country'

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:52:00 +0000

Thomas Friedman declares one of the two major parties a danger to the nation: "When the G.O.P. presidential candidates were asked during their debate on Aug. 11 whether any of them would accept a budget deal that involved $10 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases - and they all said no - the Republican Party officially became a danger to itself and to the country."

Clay Waters

Times columnist Thomas Friedman declared the G.O.P. 'a danger to itself and to the country' in his Wednesday column, 'No Christie, No Bargain.'

Again? Another NY Times Columnist Compares Tea Party to Terrorist Group

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 23:39:00 +0000

Clay Waters

What is it with New York Times columnists likening Republicans to terrorist groups? On Sunday Nicholas Kristof compared Tea Party sympathizers in Congress to Al Qaeda. Now Thomas Friedman in his Wednesday column 'Can't We Do This Right?', not content to argue that Tea Party Republicans are misguided, calls them the 'Hezbollah faction' of the G.O.P.

Again? Another Times Columnist Compares Tea Party G.O.P. to Terrorist Group

admin — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:37:00 +0000

Thomas Friedman: "[The Tea Party] is so lacking in any aspiration for American greatness, so dominated by the narrowest visions for our country and so ignorant of the fact that it was not tax cuts that made America great but our unique public-private partnerships across the generations. If sane Republicans do not stand up to this Hezbollah faction in their midst, the Tea Party will take the G.O.P. on a suicide mission."

Clay Waters

What is it with Times columnists likening Republicans to terrorist groups? On Sunday Nicholas Kristof compared Tea Party sympathizers in Congress to Al Qaeda. Now Thomas Friedman in his Wednesday column 'Can't We Do This Right?', not content to argue that Tea Party Republicans are misguided, calls them the 'Hezbollah faction' of the G.O.P.

Friedman Goes Sarcastic on Rush's Climate Skepticism, Confesses to Obama Vote; Anti-Obama Jews Full of 'Crap'

admin — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:09:00 +0000

Friedman also said American Jews calling Obama anti-Israel is "pure crap," on a lively edition of Charlie Rose.

Clay Waters

Obama's pro-Israel critics are talking 'pure crap,' said columnist Tom Friedman on PBS host Charlie Rose's show Tuesday night. Rose was hosting a roundtable of Times columnists. Along with Friedman there was David Brooks, neo-liberal economics columnist David Leonhardt, and Roger Cohen, foreign policy columnist and once a stout defender of the authoritarian regime in Iran.

Obama's Other Foreign Policy Sounding Board - NYT's Thomas Friedman - Mocks Israel, Congress

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:26:00 +0000

Matt Hadro

NewsBusters previously reported that CNN's Fareed Zakaria had met with President Obama face-to-face to discuss foreign policy. Obama's other reported "source" of information on foreign policy, New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman, mocked Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday on CNN, and added that he should have dutifully obeyed the demands Obama outlined in his recent Mideast speech.

NY Times Columnist Tom Friedman Calls for Tax to Keep Gas at $4 per Gallon

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:42:00 +0000

Kyle Drennen

On Sunday's Face the Nation, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman denounced the proposed White House plan to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to curb rising gas prices: "That would rank in my top five worst ideas of 2011 so far....one thing we should finally be doing is using this opportunity to have a credible energy policy that begins to reduce our addiction to oil."

Tom Friedman's Latest Silliness: U.S. Military 'Out-Greening' Al Qaeda and the Taliban

admin — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 19:51:00 +0000

Yes, he's serious: "at a time when a fraudulent, anti-science campaign funded largely by Big Oil and Big Coal has blocked Congress from passing any clean energy/climate bill - is the fact that the Navy and Marine Corps just didn't get the word....the Navy and Marines are building a strategy for 'out-greening' Al Qaeda, 'out-greening' the Taliban and 'out-greening' the world's petro-dictators."

Clay Waters

Foreign policy and China-admiring columnist Thomas Friedman, showing once again he has his finger on the pulse of American politics and a discerning eye on what people truly care about, devoted his Sunday column (complete with unironic title) on how the U.S. military is making itself more environmentally conscious than the Taliban, perhaps enabling the United States to "break our oil addiction": "The U.S.S. Prius."

Tom Friedman Mocks U.S. Concern Over Civil Liberties in Latest Paean to Beijing

admin — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:11:00 +0000

Again praising China, Thomas Friedman mocks American concern for civil liberties: "They fight over things like - we are not making this up - how and where an airport security officer can touch them."

Clay Waters

When it comes to China, Thomas Friedman just can't help himself. The paper's peripatetic columnist again indulged his strange affection for the authoritarian Communist regime in his Wednesday column, "From WikiChina." Speculating "What if China had a WikiLeaker? (some would say the WikiLeaker would be dead by now, but never mind ), Friedman made up a satirical cable from the Chinese embassy to Beijing.