Tommy, we hardly knew ya...
There's an entertaining dust-up in the journalism world today, when globe-trotting New York Times columnist Tom Friedman was forced to disgorge a $75,000 speaking fee for re-reading an online speech to a bunch of Bay Area bureaucrats.Aside from the sheer jaw-drop that San Francisco's Clean Air District had 75 grand to spare on the Minnesota native, Friedman apparently ran afoul of Times policy limiting such paydays unless speaking to "educational and other nonprofit groups for which lobbying and political activity are not a major focus."