I bet you could go through the same process with Thomas Friedman:
1. Come up with a principle long-since scientifically proven false.
"Hmm, how about 'The World is Flat'"
2. Write a book called "My Dull, Platitudinous Travel Diary"
"Indians in call centers can talk with Americans! Amazing!"
3. Now change the title of that book to the long-since disregarded principle.
"Everyone will want to read this because the editors at the NYT are
inexplicably required to keep me on staff, offering me undeserved
credibility for the rest of time!"
Maybe his conclusions seem unconventional (or at least, mildly inhuman) because Friedman always oversimplifies with the view from the boardroom. Never the street. Otherwise your formula could well apply to Chomsky or Taibbi, on their worst days.
1. Come up with a principle long-since scientifically proven false.
2. Write a book called "My Dull, Platitudinous Travel Diary" 3. Now change the title of that book to the long-since disregarded principle.