- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Verso (14 Nov 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1844677494
- ISBN-13: 978-1844677498
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 491,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
The hubris, sophistry, consistent hypocrisy, and buffoonery of the New York Times s most widely read columnist is systematically deconstructed and laid bare. A must-read. --Dahr Jamail, journalist and author of 'Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq'
Filleting the silliest man on the planet needs a sure scalpel, and Belen Fernandez wields hers with deadly finesse. --Alexander Cockburn, editor of CounterPunch
Belen Fernandez is a revelation to those who don't know her yet and a confirmation for those happy few who have known her sublime sense of political satire subdued, innocent, piercing, frightful. She is a political satirist of the generation X vintage low-key, self-effacing, happenstance, what-ever -type who crawls under your skin and begins to tickle and before you know it bite. She insinuates so effortlessly, you think she is just chilling she is not. Her book on Thomas Friedman is an act of restitution, a declaration of independence from a young, idealist, brave, and defiant generation of Americans who have had it up to here with barefaced banality that has been fed to them for too long. She is talking back boldly, patiently, chapter and verse, going in for the kill. --Hamid Dabashi, author of Iran, the Green Movement and the USA: The Fox and the Paradox
Filleting the silliest man on the planet needs a sure scalpel, and Belen Fernandez wields hers with deadly finesse. --Alexander Cockburn, editor of CounterPunch
Belen Fernandez is a revelation to those who don't know her yet and a confirmation for those happy few who have known her sublime sense of political satire subdued, innocent, piercing, frightful. She is a political satirist of the generation X vintage low-key, self-effacing, happenstance, what-ever -type who crawls under your skin and begins to tickle and before you know it bite. She insinuates so effortlessly, you think she is just chilling she is not. Her book on Thomas Friedman is an act of restitution, a declaration of independence from a young, idealist, brave, and defiant generation of Americans who have had it up to here with barefaced banality that has been fed to them for too long. She is talking back boldly, patiently, chapter and verse, going in for the kill. --Hamid Dabashi, author of Iran, the Green Movement and the USA: The Fox and the Paradox
Product Description
Thomas Friedman has been a New York Times foreign affairs columnist since 1995. He is said by many to be a principled observer of international events and an even-handed analyst of American policy. But Belen Fernandez's acerbic close reading of Friedman's voluminous oeuvre reveals instead a ham-fisted apologist for US military excesses and neoliberal corporate policies - as well as a risibly bad writer. Fernandez carefully reviews the Friedman corpus, and her documentation of Friedman's sloppy mistakes, inconsistencies, wilful ignoring of contradictory evidence, and sheer illogic is both appalling and amusing. Written with a light touch entirely lacking in Friedman's own prose, Fernandez's dissection is engrossing, but also quite serious. To take one example, Friedman's recycling of outdated Orientalist notions about Arab 'backwardness' and fabrications of pro-Israeli truths convey a dangerously distorted picture of one of his areas of self-proclaimed expertise. In Fernandez's analysis, Friedman emerges as both exceptionally dreadful and symptomatic of the laziness of the mainstream media of our times.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Belén Fernández's review of the the presumably competent NY Times columnist is hard hitting and factual and all together a great read. She is diligent about annotating each fact she presents, each contradiction, and each outright falsehood presented by this man who's been described by some as America's most important columnist.
Facts and analysis aside, Fernández's wit keeps the book entertaining by drawing out Friedman's mixed metaphors, and carrying them to their (il)logical conclusions.
"The Imperial Messenger" has something of Chomsky and Klein in it, an altogether fantastic book that I'm happy to recommend.
Facts and analysis aside, Fernández's wit keeps the book entertaining by drawing out Friedman's mixed metaphors, and carrying them to their (il)logical conclusions.
"The Imperial Messenger" has something of Chomsky and Klein in it, an altogether fantastic book that I'm happy to recommend.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Belen Fernandez in "Imperial Messenger" scrutinises the record of star New York Times reporter and pontificator in chief, as well as the writer of a number of bestselling books (see The Lexus and the Olive Tree and The World is Flat), Thomas Friedman. Of course such a prominent figure as Friedman has been critiqued (and mercilessly skewered) before by the likes of Edward W. Said, Greg Palast, Noam Chomsky and Robert Fisk but this, to the best of my knowledge, is the first time that he has been subjected to a comprehensive book length debunking. It is richly deserved.
That Friedman has as his perch from which to pontificate the editorial pages of the leading U.S. "quality" newspaper can only be regarded as a stunning indictment of the mainstream media of that country. When appointed chief diplomatic correspondent of the Times, having served for years as their lead correspondent in the Middle East, he claimed to know nothing about the modus operanda or institutions of international relations despite the relevance the world at large has to accurate and informed reporting of that region! This is but one specimen of Friedmans ignorance which he more or less regards as a badge of honour. Examples of this litter "Imperial Messenger" along with other Friedman phenomena such as his casual racism (reserved for Arabs) and crude machismo; weird anecdotes and surreal mixed-metaphors; flippant and fatuous analysis; the numerous occasions in which he contradicts himself (even within a single piece of writing); as well as his role as cheerleader for the Neo-Liberal project (he states that he wrote an article in favour of the Caribbean Free Trade Area treaty, even though he knew nothing of the contents of the treaty, solely because it contained the words "Free Trade"!). On the U.S., Israel and the Arab world he is quite capable of momentarily recognising some of the reality of the actions of the U.S. and Israeli governments before excusing them of any significant responsibility for the regions woes.
Fernandez records the contradictions, crudities and falsehoods of Friedman in a straightforward manner. Thankfully, given the depressing nature of her subject, she also exhibits a fine line in caustic wit that spares him no blushes. In short "Imperial Messenger" is a fine addition to the growing body of work that critiques the mainstream media in the Anglo-Saxon world, and one that I'd recommend to anyone who privileges reality over rhetoric, or as an antidote for those who believes that Friedman is some sort of visionary uber columnist rather than the smug, servile and pompous windbag exposed within the pages of this short (145pp + 60pp of notes) book.
That Friedman has as his perch from which to pontificate the editorial pages of the leading U.S. "quality" newspaper can only be regarded as a stunning indictment of the mainstream media of that country. When appointed chief diplomatic correspondent of the Times, having served for years as their lead correspondent in the Middle East, he claimed to know nothing about the modus operanda or institutions of international relations despite the relevance the world at large has to accurate and informed reporting of that region! This is but one specimen of Friedmans ignorance which he more or less regards as a badge of honour. Examples of this litter "Imperial Messenger" along with other Friedman phenomena such as his casual racism (reserved for Arabs) and crude machismo; weird anecdotes and surreal mixed-metaphors; flippant and fatuous analysis; the numerous occasions in which he contradicts himself (even within a single piece of writing); as well as his role as cheerleader for the Neo-Liberal project (he states that he wrote an article in favour of the Caribbean Free Trade Area treaty, even though he knew nothing of the contents of the treaty, solely because it contained the words "Free Trade"!). On the U.S., Israel and the Arab world he is quite capable of momentarily recognising some of the reality of the actions of the U.S. and Israeli governments before excusing them of any significant responsibility for the regions woes.
Fernandez records the contradictions, crudities and falsehoods of Friedman in a straightforward manner. Thankfully, given the depressing nature of her subject, she also exhibits a fine line in caustic wit that spares him no blushes. In short "Imperial Messenger" is a fine addition to the growing body of work that critiques the mainstream media in the Anglo-Saxon world, and one that I'd recommend to anyone who privileges reality over rhetoric, or as an antidote for those who believes that Friedman is some sort of visionary uber columnist rather than the smug, servile and pompous windbag exposed within the pages of this short (145pp + 60pp of notes) book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
With regard to his Pullitzer achievements one might think that Mr Friedman's capacity as a respected New York Times columnist is well beyond criticism. That was, however, my opinion before I read this book.
Ms Fernandez manages to carefully unravel Mr Friedman's writings as products of someone who is only superficially informed of serious and protracted issues he is writing about, thereby conveniently ignoring underlying causes which might otherwise shed a different light on these same issues.
This book is another stark reminder of the fact that one should not stick to only one information source alone - even if that source is The Imperial Messenger - but instead search for additional and critical material on the subject to improve one's understanding. A service to the reader that the current level of corporate journalism hardly provides. This is apparently a fact in the US, but it is definitely also here, in the Netherlands.
People who are interested in a nicely and sharply written, debunking critique of an internationally respected columnist on international affairs, plse do read it. The way Ms Fernandez writes is an indication that she is way more informed than Mr Friedman, and, moreover, knows how to elegantly formulate her critique. It will surely open up some eyes.
Ms Fernandez manages to carefully unravel Mr Friedman's writings as products of someone who is only superficially informed of serious and protracted issues he is writing about, thereby conveniently ignoring underlying causes which might otherwise shed a different light on these same issues.
This book is another stark reminder of the fact that one should not stick to only one information source alone - even if that source is The Imperial Messenger - but instead search for additional and critical material on the subject to improve one's understanding. A service to the reader that the current level of corporate journalism hardly provides. This is apparently a fact in the US, but it is definitely also here, in the Netherlands.
People who are interested in a nicely and sharply written, debunking critique of an internationally respected columnist on international affairs, plse do read it. The way Ms Fernandez writes is an indication that she is way more informed than Mr Friedman, and, moreover, knows how to elegantly formulate her critique. It will surely open up some eyes.
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