Michael Anti

media - Message for Thomas Friedman: the world is not flat

Chinese journalist Michael Anti explains (here in a translation by ESWN) why his former hero Thomas Friedman is no longer the great example that was for him the reason to become a journalist.
New York Times columnist wrote the famous book "The world is flat" and Anti was last year his assistent when Friedman researched the book in China. Well, research: Anti does not see Friedman search for supporting opinions really as research.

... The problem is that this type of writing is simplified to the point that it bears no relationship to reality anymore. Friedman is a marketer for his books. He has no contact with common people and he hangs around with CEO's. The triple Pulitzer Prize winner Friedman exists only in my fond memories. When I read his columns, I find that the simplicity is sometimes so offensive and repellent. The excessive popularization and dramatization has damaged the writing. Right now, I prefer to read the in-depth articles in The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly because their writers do not pursue mass audiences and therefore they have the state of mind to write something more professional, more truthful or more insightful.

According to Anti Friedman did not 'get' China and argues that China and the world are not flat at all. At best some parts of the world are flat, he says.