This article in Fortune magazine chronicles the NYT op-ed writer Thomas Freidman's influence and impact.
As anybody who follows Friedman's writings will know, his content is of highly uneven quality. On many occassions he just restates the obvious. In some other cases he over-dramatizes some issues or simply misreads a context. But, on occassion he makes very incisive and balanced observations.
His "The World is Flat" declaration is hardly new. Anybody who has followed information technology and how outsourcing simply changed the balance in access to information has seen quite plainly that the world is getting flatter. But, Friedman was so struck by this phenomenon and his subsequent reaction, almost approximating panic ("They're racing us to the top" etc), was so urgent that his message made people sit upright and at least pay some heed.
But, his forte is still topics relating to the Middle East and there being so few journalists who seem to do a half-decent job in that area, it is hardly surprising that he stands out, especially because he makes the effort to call a spade a spade.
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