New York Times at New Lows

Joseph E. Stiglitz reviews Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine in the September 30, 2007 New York Times Book Review. Klein's book is currently number 4 on the New York Times bestseller list. I have not read it, and do not intend to, so I will not comment on the book, but rather on Stiglitz's review on p. 12.

The most intriguing part of Stiglitz's review is Naomi Klein's photograph in the print edition. Klein peers from a heavy swath of expensive makeup, I suspect Estee Lauder, and her hairstyle and lipstick alone probably cost about as much as an African farm worker makes in a year. What better image for a phony liberal/left critic of capitalism?

Given that Ms. Klein's coiffure is magnificently appointed, we may expect her to rail against globalization and the provision of manufactures to low income consumers who, probably in her view, would be better off prancing about in grass skirts and of course chucking spears. We are not disappointed.

Professor Stiglitz's review illustrates why the Times has become increasingly irrelevant and dull. For instance, Ms. Klein associates Milton Friedman with Pinochet's crimes, which were indeed horrific. According to Conservepedia.com and moreorless.com Pinochet was responsible for 3,197 murders, roughly the same number as occurred on 9/11. Recently, though, the Times's Thomas L. Friedman has suggested that he hopes that "anyone who runs on a 9/11 platform gets trounced." Despite the 17-year gap since Pinochet held office, Klein's book pounces on Pinochet's 3,197 murders (horrific they be)while Thomas L. Friedman, also in the pages of the Times sneers at al Qaeda's 3,000 murders that occurred six years ago. In contrast to Pinochet, Fidel Castro, currently in office and rarely criticized in the Times, has murdered roughly 100,000 victims, 33 times the number that Pinochet murdered. The New York Times had supported Castro in his insurgency and yet Stiglitz does not qualify his remarks about Milton Friedman.

Stiglitz and Klein sociopathically ignore that the chief mass murders of the last century were committed by those who opposed globalization, many of whom found themselves in the good graces of the Times. These include Stalin, for whom Walter Duranty apologized in the 1930s, as well as Castro and Mao, whom John Kenneth Galbraith praised to the heavens in a 1972 New York Times Magazine article. Mao alone was responsible for 25 million murders 8,333 times the number that Pinochet killed. The sick, sociopathic history of the anti-globalization left, in which Stiglitz and Klein participate, is repugnant.

Klein and Stiglitz together with the anti-globalization movement have blood-soaked hands. That anyone takes what this crew has to say seriously is astonishing.