New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman underscored how technology has penetrated and transformed government, politics and the press Monday on a taping of The Kalb Report.
Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize-wining author, joined host Marvin Kalb for the series that entered its 20th season this year and focuses on journalism in the digital age. They touched on the national security debates that have emerged since Edward Snowden leaked information about U.S. surveillance programs to the media last year.
“I find every week I read another set of revelations, and I read another set of arguments pro and con that make me, one week, feel one way about him and, another week, feel another,” Friedman said. “I think it’s a very vital case that was inevitably going to happen, and I think it’s healthy that it’s happened, that we’re having this discussion.”
He added that Snowden’s actions set off a worldwide conversation about how laws have failed to keep pace with technological advances.
He said Monday that technology, especially social media, has unleashed an era of hyper-connectivity.
“[Ten years ago,] Facebook didn’t exist, Twitter was still a sound, the cloud was still in the sky, 4G was a parking place, LinkedIn was a prison, applications were what you sent to college, big data was a rap star, Skype was a typo,” Friedman said.
The 60-year-old said his greatest memory as a journalist was reporting in Tahrir Square when the revolution in Egypt erupted in 2011, calling the uprising a response to corruption and a demand by young people for the opportunity to “realize their full potential.”
Friedman wrapped up the taping of The Kalb Report, which is produced in part by the School of Media and Public Affairs, arguing that the world looks to the United States as a model for democratic government.
“Deep down, I feel that I think the most important national foreign policy issue in the world is the health and vitality of this country,” he said. “If we go dark as a country, if we are pessimistic, if we can’t be all we can be and emphasize our values such as freedom, opportunity, pluralism, your kids won’t just grow up in a different America, they will grow up in a fundamentally different world.”
