Thomas Friedman Enrages The Proles Of The Globe
Globe-flattening moustache habitrail Thomas Friedman, who’s never met a hype-spouting CEO he wasn’t incredibly impressed by, is no friend of the working man, this we know. But he’s currently ruining labour talks at the Boston Globe, just by being his annoying self.
See, the Globe is owned by this bankrupt little mom-and-pop media concern called The New York Times Company. This company also pays one Tom Friedman a ridiculous amount of money to travel to places like Iceland and India and probably Dubai, so that he can talk with a CEO and then report back on how smart that CEO is.
So meanwhile this company is trying to renegotiate contracts with employees at the Globe, this newspaper they keep threatening to shut down. And Mr. Friedman bragged, in The New Yorker, about how he has a literally unlimited expense budget. This rubbed Brian Mooney the wrong way! So he wrote a letter.
“The New York Times Co. wants you to slit your own throats and take money out of your pockets so Tom Friedman (and others in New York) can travel in style and at great expense — and then brag about it. The Times (not the Globe) lost $US74.5 million last quarter and will lose a bundle in this quarter. Stand up and tell the Times the contract they’re trying to shove down your throats is an outrage. Vote No on June 8.”
So, yes, the mailers and press operators agreed to some concessions, but this might not bode well for the upcoming editorial contract vote! Thanks, Thomas Friedman, you just personally killed a newspaper. Well, you and Pinch and the internet. But mostly you.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
I know Brian Mooney, and he's a hell of a reporter and as well a genuine and compassionate man in an industry full of bombastic asshats like Friedman. Plus, Brian's got a mustache that could kick Friedman's crumb catcher off of his stupid face.
DaeSu
@if_i_only_had_a_heart: sorry ... didn't include the url and the intro
[www.eschatonblog.com]
the mall is flatt and little tommy is brokey brokey; ggp is where the wife's money comes from
"the moustache of underSunday, April 19, 2009
The Mall Is Flat
It's important to remember that as with General Growth Properties, some retailers and other businesses didn't go under simply because sales dropped a bit and suddenly they weren't making any money. They went under because they amassed immense amount of short term debt which they thought they could just keep refinancing until the end of time. The economic downturn exacerbated this, but a big issue has simply been the increased difficulty in refinancing.
General Growth Properties Inc.'s decision to file one of the biggest Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in U.S. history Thursday resulted from its inability to refinance mounds of debt, taken on during a rapid expansion, when credit markets crumbled...The Chicago-based company, which is master developer of Columbia and owner of most of the Baltimore area's regional malls, amassed $27 billion in debt by buying malls and shopping centers. Much of that debt came with its acquisition of Columbia's Rouse Co. in 2004.
Your view of the financial crisis probably depends on whether you think the state of affairs which allowed GGP to borrow to expand so much is the good and normal one, and the drying up of credit to companies like them a temporary aberration, or if you think that cheap money for everyone all the time regardless of ability to repay is problematic.
Loans were given out without concern for repayment ability because refinancing was always an option.
That 'stache pic.. I haven't seen a leering womb-broom like that since a revival screening of Serpico when I was on acid. Thanks, Pareene.
@cheap_sunglasses:One is an incisive critique of American mass culture, the other is a syndicated newspaper column.
theodicey
@momof3wildkids: I think Friedman's "valve" is his mouth.
Silverbackne
Replace Friedman's expense account with a copy of the latest SkyMall and his columns might actually improve.
@momof3wildkids: Oops. Just saw my comment under a post above. I wonder where I disappeared to.
momof3wildkids
Anyone ever read Confederacy of Dunces?
I imagine that Ignatius J Reilly's mustache resembled Friedman's. Drinking a Dr Nut and writing Diary of a Working Boy.
momof3wildkids
Retire that pic, now!
transbastard
Anyone ever read Confederacy of Dunces?
I imagine that Ignatius J Reilly's mustache resembled Friedman's. Drinking a Dr Nut and writing Diary of a Working Boy.
momof3wildkids
Hey, travel to the Beard and Mustache Championships ain't cheap.
Harry Pelotas
Damn. I was hoping that mustache bait might have lured one PopeJohnPeeps onto the thread...oh, well.
lawyergay
Wow, Friedman is a billionaire (by marriage) yet brags about his expense account. He makes some good points about the benefits of globalization but his tendency to mention every luxurious place that he's writing his column from is quite tiresome. The NY Times could probably eliminate his expense account entirely and maybe even make him pay to write for them since so much of his identity/legitimacy is wrapped up in being a columnist.
xmonkeydr
Friedman is a modern day Medicine Show pitchman. He's much funnier if you picture him in a bowler's hat and a late Victorian two-piece walking suit (a size too small), then set him up with a cart full of heroin elixir and a mule and there you go.
Now replace "heroin elixir" with the phrase "global neoliberal economic policy" and the metaphor is complete.
gawkimo