While I'm praising people I don't usually praise, let me say a nice thing about Tom Friedman. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to meet Friedman, and I made my pitch for the value of appearing on al-Jazeera. He told me that he hadn't gone on al-Jazeera in years since a particularly bad experience (I think this was early 2002), but he seemed interested.
Last Monday (August 29), Friedman appeared on al-Jazeera - for the first time in years - to talk about his book and wider questions of Arab reform.
Richard Haass was on the same show to talk about his book, The Opportunity. I've noted several recent appearances by Martin Indyk of the Brookings Institution. Earlier today I mentioned the new policies proposed by Karen Hughes. And now Friedman. Do I sense a sea change in American mainstream attitudes towards al-Jazeera? I doubt that this long argument is actually over - there are certainly plenty of dead-enders in certain Departments of Defense and offices of Vice Presidents and magazines and blogs - but the tide certainly seems to have turned.
Ahem. I believe the proper blogospheric title for such a post should be "Abu Aardvark gets results from Thomas Friedman."
Posted by: praktike | September 06, 2005 at 11:40 AM