12-01-2006, 11:59 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-02-2006, 12:00 AM by Ruggedtouch.)
I’ve noticed that Fisk is the darling of Islamists as his agenda is clearly designed with a Western hating edge.
He certainly is partisan, and I don't think he pretends to be any different, although he seems to have disliked Arafat as much as he does Sharon.
He’s not just partisan. He’s biased <i>in extremis</i> and his every utterance is couched in terms of pressing a personal agenda. I don’t see it as important whether he likes or dislikes one entity more or less than another. If he chooses to write opinion pieces, that’s his choosing. However, don’t make the mistake that his opinions are not fostered under the umbrella of a bias and a bigotry firmly in place. His prejudices and preconceptions have earned him ridicule and condemnation from his peers. That is probably the greatest indictment against him and the foul odor he has cast upon his craft.
My experience with reading his “work” is that he doesn’t interview people, he "quotes" them, maybe sometimes in context, maybe not. I'm not there - I don't know if he has invented quotes or not. There's no way to tell. However, given his obvious deep hatred for America and Israel would you suggest you have never been concerned about the accuracy of his "quotes"
An interview, even a sound bite interview, with a civilian needs some, however minimal, background for credibility. It makes big difference.
for example:- (this is a Fisk “quote”)
"If I was an Iraqi and I read that," an Arab woman shouted at me, "I would become a suicide bomber."
http://www.rense.com/general37/colon.htm
An "Arab women" shouting that "quote" - Maybe there was an "Arab woman", maybe not - but until we know something about her, her quote (if it was ever uttered) means nothing other than Bobby Fisk hates Israel, America and Great Britain -- probably in that order. This is typical of the “quotes” that Fisk attributes to people, people we don’t know by name, people we can’t identify with, nameless people who Fisk feels free to “quote”.
This is my favorite (and one of the few times we know the identity of the person or persons Fisk is talking to) – just after the end of Gulf2, and remember the context of that moment in recent history:
I met – extraordinarily – an Iraqi nuclear scientist walking around the compound, a colleague of the former head of Iraqi nuclear physics, Dr Sharistani. "This is the last place I ever wanted to see and I will never return to it," he said to me. "This was the place of greatest evil in all the world."
Did anyone catch that? That's it? - no talking to this guy?, no questions or comments? Unbelievable!! Either:
1) Fisk is stupendously stupid;,
2) this encounter never happened, or
3) Fisk takes it for granted his readers are blithering idiots.
Would any real journalist pass up an interview with a close colleague of senior members of Iraq’s nuke program, for the first time free to talk? It's Pulitzer stuff if you get it right.
Fisk..he chucks in a quote and moves on looking for more fertile hunting grounds for his views..maybe a group of youths over there will provide the anti-US quotes he wants?...sod the reality...the Fisking must be consistent...and what greater consistency - "The USA is WRONG" - every time, every circumstance.