Friedman disses Arkansas on Fresh Air

Today, he was on, plugging his book "Flat Line". He talked a lot about Wal-Mart, saying that the reason for the company's success was that it had to innovate because Bentonville is Little Abner country. He repeatedly called the area "Podunk".

I never thought much of Friedman since he supported the Iraq War. I found the fact that he ignored the "Made in the USA" campaign that WalMart had in the 80s (when Sam Walton was alive) while touting WalMart's ties to China as inevitable telling.

Don't like someone who is cheerleading for outsourcing without having any real solutions for what jobs Americans can do. Don't like someone who cheerleads for the current WalMart policy like he did. But I especially don't like someone who decides, after going from an airport to a company headquarters, that a place is hicksville.

FYI, Mr. Friedman, Fayetteville has a symphony orchestra, as does nearby Ft. Smith. There are Sufi gathering places in nearby counties, as well as Hindus and Buddhists, not to mention Native Americans. There are art galleries and museums, poetry slams, blues festivals, live theater, and restaurants presenting cuisine from cultures like Persia and India. What we don't have are high rise buidlings-we have mountains and clean air and space to live and enjoy life. I get the NY Times every morning, but I think from now on I'll skip your op-eds.

but he is proving more capable of disappointment every day.

He's all about coming up with memorable phrases for complex subjects he knows nearly zero about. He has built a reputation with sheer persistence and favors from those he readily agrees with. His early reporting on the Sabra and Shatila Massacre was exemplary, but today he'd do everything he could to apologize for it.

And as an Arkansan I thoroughly resent a Yankee blowhard poormouthing my home state. He can kiss my Gurdon-born ass just as easily as he kisses Rumsfeld's.

I can tell you that I am just as upset. I CHOSE to live here because of the diversity and beauty and culture. Too bad Friedman never saw it.

FRIEDMAN! godammit