A New Way To Save Newspapers: Pay Columnists $75 Grand To Rehash Old Speeches

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District booked Pulitzer Prize-winning Thomas Friedman (“Hot, Flat, and Crowded“) to give a speech at its climate summit last week in Oakland. He spent about two hours with the 500 invited bureaucrats, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, autographing copies of his book and answering questions. For this, and for his speech, he was paid $75,000 and the board picked up his hotel.

Only trouble is the speech he gave was “almost identical” to a talk he delivered in Florida last November—and that speech is available online for free.

“That

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