To me, this is what every journalist ought to be like. Or if I was one, this is what I (hope) like to think I would strife to be.
Read Justin Podur's interview with Robert Fisk.
Some quotes;
I'm not some cranky left wing or right wing nut. We are a newspaper, that's the point. That gives us an authority — most people are used to growing up with newspapers. The internet is a new thing, and it's also unreliable.
Look across daily newspapers in the United States and the coverage of the Middle East is lamentable and incomprehensible. There are semantics introduced to avoid controversy, mostly controversy from Israeli supporters. Colonies become “neighbourhoods,” occupied becomes “disputed,” a wall turns into a “fence” magically — I mean I hope my house isn't made of fences.
In the realm of warfare, which represents the total failure of the human spirit, you are morally bound as a journalist to show eloquent compassion to the victims, to be unafraid to name the murderers, and you're allowed to be angry. The waitress who's serving us coffee, the taxi driver who brought me here, they have feelings about atrocities. Why shouldn't we?
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I agree that Fisk is a simply wonderful journalist.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky enough to attend a lecture he gave in London last year.
It's so refreshing to hear someone simply tell the truth, especially regarding the Middle East.
I wish I could see and hear him speak in person. The 'anti-conspiracy' types easily dismiss him but you know..here's a person who will go where the real drama happens. I remember when the US was invading Iraq, he was not embedded with the US army, but he was in Baghdad. He could tell from personal experiences that there was no such thing as 'precision bombing'. Also, this is one of my big pet peeves; people in the US are clueless (!!)about what it feels like to be attacked..for real. To have the threat of bombing loom day to day, to hear the air raid sirens, to hear the explosions..heck, just to hear those planes coming towards you...I'm afraid too many don't even care. They think too much 'tv show' style and entitle them all kinds of feeling affronted, solely because of 9/11. Well, 9/11 doesn't even come close to a real war with an invading army threatening you and your family.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Kel..I do enjoy your posts and since blogger.com informed me that they don't 'do blogrolls', I might have to figure something else out to put my favourites on the foreground..
Ingrid