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Fareed Zakaria decries the “anti-Americanism” in America’s politics today
As host of “GPS (Global Public Square)” on CNN, 60-year-old Fareed Zakaria says he’s teaching international relations to the masses. “I’ve always thought of journalism as sort of, at some level, public education,” he said.
In a digital studio with plasma screen walls, Zakaria dives into global issues with scholars, U.S. presidents, and even the occasional celebrity. No shouting allowed!
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Zakaria is an optimist, and he’d like to think of himself as non-partisan, at a time when it’s hard for a news anchor to go on TV and not make clear whether they support Donald Trump or not. He said, “The weirdness of the Trump presidency and candidacy and such – being such an assault on traditional American, I would argue, mores and norms – and the lies, the constant lying, so you feel as though you’re not actually taking a side when you say that, ‘This guy is lying.’ But it sounds like you’re taking a side, right? And then he attacks you. Now you’re in the ring, whether you want to be or not.”
Sanneh asked, “Is that uncomfortable for you? I get the sense that you did not get into this in order to become a partisan figure?”
“I don’t pretend that I don’t have views,” Zakaria said. “But it’s my analysis rooted in fact, rooted in history.”
In terms of his politics, Zakaria said, “I find that on most issues these days, I’m left-of-center. When I was in college, I was a Reaganite. I was more right-of-center.”
Born in Mumbai to Rafiq, a politician, and Fatma, a journalist and editor, Fareed came to America to go to college on a scholarship at Yale, which, he said, no one had heard of. “My dad, to his dying day, could never pronounce Yale. He would always call it Ale,” Zakaria said. “So he’d be like, ‘How are things at Ale?'”
His original plan was to get an education in the United States and then go back to India. “But very quickly, I have to confess, I kinda fell in love with America,” he said.
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He went on to Harvard, getting a Ph.D. in political science in 1993. On the side, he gained a culinary education. “I learned how to cook by watching Jacques Pépin on public television!” he said.
By 28, he was managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine. In 2000, he joined Newsweek as a columnist.
He initially supported the Iraq War, which, he says, he later came to regret. “In this case, I think I lost my judgment, because, as somebody who grew up Muslim, I was worried that I was not gonna seem sufficiently, you know, tough on Muslim dysfunction,” he said. “So, there was a part of me that, I think, wanted to show my patriotic credentials.”
In 2015 he called the Iraq war “a failure and a terrible mistake.” “I think the U.S. lost enormous credibility,” said Zakaria. “It was, turned out to be, a massive waste of American resources, of American lives.”
During those years, Zakaria seemed to be everywhere—a widely-read print columnist, and also a TV host, first on PBS, and then, starting in 2008, on CNN. But in 2012, he was accused of plagiarism. He was briefly suspended by Time magazine (where he was a contributing editor-at-large) and by CNN.
“I’ve had these setbacks,” he said. “And initially, you know, you get defensive, and you say to yourself, Wait a minute… Then, you have to step back and say to yourself, Was this at the level of quality that I would be comfortable with? And the answer is, no. And so I just said to myself, Okay, I’m gonna be three times more careful.“
In his new book, “Age of Revolutions” (published March 26 by W.W. Norton), Zakaria writes about how societies embrace change, and resist it, too.
W.W. Norton
“You have the information revolution which connects everybody. And then, you have, at the same time over the last 30 or 40 years, this identity revolution where, all of a sudden, whether it’s your sexual orientation, whether it’s your national origin, whether it’s the color of your skin, you’re saying, you know, ‘I want to be able to be me.’ And, of course, what has happened is, it has left a lot of people deeply unmoored, anxious, feeling like their world is going away. And now we’re living through the backlash. How well you can navigate that backlash is really what determines whether you’ll succeed or fail in the end.”
He believes the speed of recent changes has unsettled the country. He said, “We have this group of people in America who feel that they are not benefiting from all the changes in society. And that worries me a lot. There is a kind of anti-Americanism at the heart of this. You can’t love your country and hate everything about it.”
Zakaria is not just an observer. He speaks with world leaders regularly both on-air and off-, including President Joe Biden. “He’s occasionally called me into the White House to talk about what I think is going on in the world,” he said.
Sanneh asked, “Are you reassured by what you hear from him in private, both his ideas, but also his fitness for the office?”
“Yeah. When I have talked to him, one-on-one, or in a small group, he’s alert, he’s sharp, he’s wise, I would say, most importantly,” Zakaria said. “I think he is performing his job as president extremely well. Now, can you have the energy to hustle on the campaign trail? That’s hard.”
Zakaria said he didn’t want Biden to run for re-election. Now that the campaign is underway, he thinks the choice is obvious.
But he said it’s not easy to be an optimist these days.
“I worry a lot about what is happening in America right now,” he said. “There was sort of guidance, there were gatekeepers, and part of this revolutionary age is that’s all gone away. And what you’re finding is that there’s no self-regulatory mechanism, that there’s no way that you can somehow say, ‘No, this is beyond the pale.’
“I will return to my optimism. We will find a way. But this is a very rocky period.”
READ AN EXCERPT: “Age of Revolutions” by Fareed Zakaria
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Story produced by Mary Raffalli. Editor: Robert Kaplan.
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Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday promises to be bittersweet, star-studded
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday night promises to be starry, jamming — and bittersweet. So many of the honorees this time have been lost.
Of the seven original members of Kool & the Gang, there is only one, Robert “Kool” Bell. There will be no living members of the MC5, which suffered the recent deaths of its two last original members, drummer Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson and guitarist and singer Wayne Kramer. Foreigner’s original bassist Ed Gagliardi and multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald have died and guitarist Mick Jones has been sidelined by Parkinson’s disease. A Tribe Called Quest has lost Phife Dawg.
“I wish George was here and the rest of the other gentlemen — the other original members — because they well deserve this recognition,” said Hahn Brown, widow of Kool & the Gang drummer and songwriter George Brown, who died in 2023.
Taylor Jewell
In many ways, the class of 2024 — which also includes Peter Frampton, Cher, Mary J. Blige, Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Matthews Band, the late Jimmy Buffett, Dionne Warwick and the late Alexis Korner, the late John Mayall and the late Big Mama Thornton — is a catch-up class, reflecting turnover in the hall’s leadership.
“There’s been a change over from some of the old guard in years past so you see artists like Rush and Kiss and Stevie Ray Vaughan and Randy Rhodes, the MC5 and Judas Priest getting in. Whereas before that might not have been the case,” says Tom Morello, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame guitarist for bands like Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave.
Morello recalls bringing up the issue of membership with Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen’s manager and a former Rolling Stone critic, who was then chairman of the nominating committee.
He told him: “Myself and my friends, we don’t think so much about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame because none of our favorite bands are in it.”
Now it will have a band Morello has long championed, the MC5, who paved the way for the Stooges, the Ramones, the Clash, the Sex Pistols, Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down.
Chris Pizzello
Saturday’s induction ceremony will be held at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland. It will stream live on Disney+. A special featuring performance highlights and standout moments will air on ABC on Jan. 1.
Cher — the only artist to have a No. 1 song in each of the past six decades — and Blige, with eight multi-platinum albums and nine Grammy Awards, will help boost the number of women in the Hall, which critics say is too low.
Artists must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years before they’re eligible for induction. Nominees were voted on by more than 1,000 artists, historians and music industry professionals.
There had been a starry push to get Foreigner — with the hits “Urgent” and “Hot Blooded” — into the Hall, with Mark Ronson, Jack Black, Slash, Dave Grohl and Paul McCartney all publicly backing the move. Ronson’s stepfather is Mick Jones, Foreigner’s founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist.
Warwick will arrive at the ceremony only a few days after attending a memorial to her longtime friend and collaborator, Cissy Houston, in Newark, New Jersey. Jennifer Hudson and Teyana Taylor will help induct her.
Other members of rock, pop and hip-hop royalty will be on hand to help usher the class in, including Busta Rhymes, Dr. Dre, Demi Lovato, Dua Lipa, Ella Mai, James Taylor, Jelly Roll, Julia Roberts, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Lucky Daye, Mac McAnally, Method Man, Roger Daltrey, Sammy Hagar, Slash and The Roots.
Last year, Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan, “Soul Train” creator Don Cornelius, Kate Bush and the late George Michael were some of the artists who got into the hall.
Boeing and the union representing striking machinists have negotiated a new contract proposal that would provide bigger pay raises and bonuses in a bid to end a costly walkout that has crippled production of airplanes for more than a month.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said early Saturday that it plans to hold a ratification vote on Wednesday.
The union said the deal would increase pay by 35% over four years, up from 30% that was offered last month. It also boosts upfront bonuses to $7,000 per worker instead of $6,000.
The new offer would not restore a traditional pension plan — a key demand of the 33,000 striking workers — but it would increase the amount of contributions to 401(k) retirement plans that Boeing would match, the union said.
“We look forward to our employees voting on the negotiated proposal,” Boeing said in a statement.
About 33,000 members of IAM District 751 began a strike on Sept. 14. The strike has halted production of Boeing 737s including the 737 Max, and 767s and 777s. Boeing is continuing to build 787 Dreamliners at a nonunion plant in South Carolina.
The strike won’t affect commercial flights but represents another setback for the aerospace giant, whose reputation and finances have been battered by manufacturing problems and multiple federal investigations this year.
Earlier this month, Boeing said it planned to cut 10% of its global workforce, or around 17,000 employees, amid the strike that has idled its factories. An S&P Global report estimates the company is losing $1 billion a month from the demonstration.
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Mail carriers reach tentative contract with USPS that includes pay raises, air-conditioned trucks
Some 200,000 mail carriers have reached a tentative contract deal with the U.S. Postal Service that includes backdated pay raises and a promise to provide workers with air-conditioned trucks.
The new agreement, which still needs to be ratified by union members, runs through Nov. 2026. Letter deliverers have been working without a contract since May 2023.
Both the union and the Postal Service welcomed the agreement, which was announced Friday.
“Both sides didn’t get everything they wanted. But by bargaining in good faith, we ended with an agreement that meets our goals and rewards our members,” Brian Renfroe, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, told The Associated Press. “To make that happen, the Postal Service had to recognize the contributions of members to the Postal Service and the American people.”
Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
Among other improvements, the deal increases the top pay and reduces the amount of time it takes new workers to reach that level, Renfroe said. He credited Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and his deputy for bargaining in good faith throughout the arduous process.
The Postal Service said the agreement supported its 10-year ‘Delivering for America’ mission to modernize operations and adapt to changing customer needs.
“This is a fair and responsible agreement that serves the best interest of our employees, our customers and the future of the Postal Service,” said Doug Tulino, the deputy postmaster general and chief human resources officer.
As part of the agreement, all city carriers will get three annual pay increases of 1.3% each by 2025, some of which will be paid retroactively from Nov. 2023. Workers will also receive retroactive and future cost-of-living adjustments.
There is also a commitment from the Postal Service to “make every effort” to provide mail trucks with air-conditioning.
Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
The Postal Service in summer began rolling out its new electric delivery vehicles, which come equipped with air-conditioning. While the trucks won’t win any beauty contests, they did get rave reviews from letter carriers accustomed to older vehicles that lack modern safety features and are prone to breaking down — and even catching fire.
Within a few years, the new delivery fleet will have expanded to 60,000 vehicles, most of them electric models, serving as the Postal Service’s primary delivery truck from Maine to Hawaii.
Under the tentative contract agreement, the Postal Service must discuss with the union any plans to buy new mail trucks that don’t have air-conditioning.
This is the second contract negotiated since DeJoy was appointed postmaster general in 2020. It is expected to take several weeks for union members to ratify the contract. Rural mail deliverers aren’t covered by the contract because they are represented by a different union.