Beijing-based journalist and prolific blogger Zhao Jing (who also goes by the pen name Michael Anti) has lashed out at his former hero Thomas Friedman, who recently visited Shanghai and Beijing to promote his world-famous book "The World is Flat." In that book, Friedman contends that the world is "flat" in that competition between industrial and emerging market nations has mostly leveled to an even playing field.
At one time, Friedman (a Middle East correspondent and Pulitzer prize winner) was Anti's inspiration to become a journalist. But "The World Is Flat" has flattened Anti's admiration.
Last year, Michael Anti assisted Friedman in China with research for Friedman's book. According to Anti, it was not so much research as a quest for like-minded opinions.
On the New CenturyNet (English translation by ESWN) Anti offered this critique:
"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 CEOs. 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."
Anti contends that Friedman doesn't really understand China, and he argues that China is not "flat" at all, in Friedman's terms. In general, Anti is very critical about Western-media coverage fo China.
