COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“Tom Friedman has a
'brilliant' Syria plan for Trump: use ISIS to force Damascus into a
power-sharing deal with al-Qaeda”
Friedman is one of the greatest blowhard phonies of the age,
sometimes as unintentionally hilarious as a fundamentalist tent preacher,
alternately bawling and beaming, trying desperately to sway souls for Christ.
He frequently trips over his own lack of logic, resembling
an awkward kid tripping on his own shoelaces, while churning out his endless
stream of propaganda for the Pentagon and Israel, the two entities he holds
tightly to his bosom.
But churn it out he does, literally small mountains of dog shit
in columns, lectures, and books.
The establishment has fittingly recognized his amazing
output by giving him three Pulitzer Prizes. For those not familiar with the
Pulitzer, it was created by an American newspaper baron whose name it bears. It
is awarded in a number of categories each year, but journalism and books are
the best known.
In general, as with all such annual prizes, certainly
including the Nobel Peace Prize and Hollywood's Oscar, it represents some
mixture of annual marketing promotion for an industry or organization to gin-up
its sales, self-congratulations by the members of an industry or organization,
fun annual parties, and opportunities to make political statements to the
world, largely propaganda statements.
The prizes all have rather dismal records, the Peace Prize
frequently going to murderers and frauds, the Oscar going often to unwatchable
films whose subject happens to be something Hollywood wants to crow about. Quality
is only accidentally present is winners, although much of the public naively
believes all such prizes inherently mean quality. That’s why we see blurbs in
books or articles along the lines of, “As Pulitzer Prize winner so-and-so
said.” This is always a cheap trick to inflate the authority of the writer
being cited rather than letting the reader draw his or her own conclusions.
The Pulitzer is right in there with a terrible record of
having been awarded in journalism several times to outright frauds for invented
story series, frequently for undistinguished efforts ("It's my
turn!"), and then to someone like Friedman who represents a powerful
continuing force in American journalism, the so-called Israel Lobby, members of
which own America's major broadcast networks and major old-line newspapers.
Its record in books is not a great deal more distinguished,
mediocre works frequently having won while original, interesting, or highly
critical work is ignored. Books about America itself and what a great history
it has and what a great place it is seem to get secret bonus points at the
start of the selection.
In Friedman's case, the New York Times, a paper which likes
to style itself as the nation’s paper of record, has always, always supported
every war and intervention of the national government. It has a long record of
cooperating with outfits like the CIA and FBI, and several times it is known to
have suppressed stories some smart reporter stumbled upon - famously, the Bay
of Pigs invasion preparations. Several times, members of CIA or those entangled
with CIA have been discovered on staff, creating a little scandal, but one
suspects most were not discovered.
The paper has also taken secret tips from a frequently
blundering FBI to go after individuals with no evidence at all – famously,
nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, wrongly accused of giving top secrets to China,
but there are many other examples including the man, Richard Jewell, wrongly
accused of the Atlanta Olympics bombing. And then there was the woman it went
after viciously, inappropriately revealing her identity in a rape case, who was
accusing a member of the Kennedy clan of the rape. It only recently was revealed that every
single story on the Middle East concerning Israel in any possible way is
dutifully sent by the New York Times to be passed by the Official Israeli
Censor before being published.
The best description of the impossibly-pretentious New York
Times ever given is “the house organ for America’s power establishment.” It
runs enough sound and interesting material on non-controversial and
non-political subjects to hold a reputation for quality. It also, remarkably,
in the insanely-confused morass that is American politics, is regarded as
“liberal,” something impossible for a genuine liberal to even understand.
Supporting every colonial war of the post-WWII American
empire is anything but liberal, but the New York Times pretty consistently
supports Democrats, and in America, that is somehow regarded as liberal, the
party somehow having escaped the nickname it deserves, the War Party. Johnson,
Clinton, Obama, and Mrs. Clinton – mass killers every one of them.
Anyway, that provides some context to understand why Friedman
has been kept aboard for what seems like ages, pounding out rat shit propaganda
and periodically being awarded another “Pulitzer.”
Here are several past pieces on Friedman – despite his
awards and the pretentiousness with which he is treated, his bloated nonsense
actually makes him a pretty easy target.
Readers may enjoy:
