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GUILT BORNE

The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade defends a fearless teller of truth:

The Independent’s Middle East correspondent, Robert Fisk, argues that western journalists bear a burden of guilt for the misreporting of the region. He cites several instances of the way in which Israeli spin dominates the narrative of Middle East reporting, and therefore give “a fictitious version of events.”

That would be the same Robert Fisk who claimed Israel dropped uranium bombs on Lebanon, and who also claimed Israeli missiles had pierced the very centre of the red cross on the roofs of two Red Cross ambulances, among other fictitious versions of events.

(Via Charlie G.)

Posted by Tim B. on 11/14/2006 at 12:32 PM
  1. Sloppy copy editing - they struck out the “anti-” preceding Israeli.

    Posted by Steve Skubinna on 2006 11 14 at 12:39 PM • permalink

  2. Das Independent‘s resident Arabist propagandist Bobby Fisk is claiming other reporters are portraying “a fictitious version of events.”???

    Oh, that’s just rich.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 11 14 at 12:41 PM • permalink

  3. The Independent’s Middle East correspondent, Robert Fisk, argues that western journalists bear a burden of guilt for the misreporting of the region.

    W-e-l-l, I’ll take that as an admission of guilt, Bobby! Six months hard labor. Bailiff, call the next case.

    Posted by paco on 2006 11 14 at 01:04 PM • permalink

  4. Greenslade. What a goof. And is it just my eyesight, or does his face seem too big for his head? Also, it looks like he’s working on a topknot: another woodpecker, pecking away at the tree of truth?

    Posted by paco on 2006 11 14 at 01:08 PM • permalink

  5. I think it’s his enormous brain trying to burst through his cranium, paco.

    Posted by Tex Lovera on 2006 11 14 at 01:24 PM • permalink

  6. All I can say is, that Kool-Aid must be tasty.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 11 14 at 01:35 PM • permalink

  7. Fisk deplores “a kind of slackness in reporting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”...or in other words, unless you’re stridently anti-Israel you’re just not being objective, in his mind.

    If any physicist working on multiple-alternative-universes theories ever needs one final piece to the puzzle, I suspect Fisk will be it.

    Posted by PW on 2006 11 14 at 01:36 PM • permalink

  8. Well, obviously Tim is too engrossed with talking with Tree Hugger Sister to think about even more egregious examples of terrible news reporting by Robert Fisk.  For me the most notorious example of biased blatantly false reporting by Fisk was the time US troops had occupied the Baghdad Airport and he insisted that was ALL A LIE!  He said he was right there in Baghdad and he knew for a fact that the US did not have the Airport.  And yet while he was claiming it a lie, news reports showed camera footage of US troops occupying the Baghdad Airport.

    Fisk should have been made to apologize and retire on a small pension for that major goof up.  And yet we heard nothing about it.  Certainly not from The Independent or 24 Rolls himself.

    Posted by wronwright on 2006 11 14 at 01:38 PM • permalink

  9. Robert Fisk:  the Baghdad Bob of western journalism.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 11 14 at 01:46 PM • permalink

  10. As CNN has acknowledged, and as the Peter Arnett fiasco demonstrated, news organizations survive in the Middle East only by taking the Arab side. The Israelis will not kill you for negative reporting. So the fearless Western media are led around the Middle East by Arab stringers who usually work for the Government. Since the Israelis also conveniently speak English, it’s just so easy to get that tough story in Jerusalem.

    Posted by melk on 2006 11 14 at 02:06 PM • permalink

  11. #9: Good one, Rebecca! Actually, I’m astonished that the moniker hasn’t been applied to him before, in that precise context.

    Posted by paco on 2006 11 14 at 02:08 PM • permalink

  12. Speak Truthiness to gullible Lefties

    Lebanon is where Iranian Revolutionary Guards are supposed to have been pouring in from Tehran. The country’s National Symphony Orchestra has been playing Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saens. And down here on the border with Israel, where 8,000 new missiles have supposedly arrived for the Hizbollah, the women are drying tobacco leaves in the sun.

    The “centre for world terror” comes from the imagination of Ariel Sharon, Israel’s Prime Minister, who was flying to Washington last night for a warm welcome from President George Bush. The non-existent Revolutionary Guards and 8,000 missiles – at the weekend, the Israelis upped the figure to 10,000 then mysteriously brought it back to 8,000 – are the invention of Shimon Peres, the Israeli Foreign Minister.

    In reality, there hasn’t been an Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Lebanon since 1984 – Mr Peres is just 18 years late with his facts. As for the missiles, the Hizbollah would like to know where they are.

    Posted by Rob Read on 2006 11 14 at 03:04 PM • permalink

  13. How are the fearless truth tellers going to report on the systematic gutting of the intelligentsia of Iraq by the local freedom fighters?

    Posted by Rafe on 2006 11 14 at 03:29 PM • permalink

  14. Talk about cognitive dissonance.  It’s the same thing when some BBC bigshot lectures the U.S. media on its war cheerleading and obsequiousness to the Bush administration.

    The New York Times and other major media in the U.S. provided more effective opposition in the run up to the invasion of Iraq than did the Democrats. 

    You get the impression people like this must be getting different editions of the papers and magazines I see.

    Posted by cosmo on 2006 11 14 at 03:35 PM • permalink

  15. These guys are really undermining the arguments against the old caste system.

    It’s becoming more and more obvious every time they open their mouths that some are simply born to be idiots.

    Is there a pool on how long until an official “Idiot Class” is formalized?

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 11 14 at 03:53 PM • permalink

  16. I’m currently reading “Flags of Our Fathers” by James Bradley. Concerning the flag raised on Iwo Jima, the NY Times got the initial story incorrect and much later, when the actual events were made known, portrayed the Marines as complicit liars despite the fact that the Marines had never made such claims in the first place.

    I’m confident Fisk and The Independent will have a story implicating Israel (e.g. Joooos) in that nation’s own eventual destruction.

    Posted by JDB on 2006 11 14 at 04:04 PM • permalink

  17. And even more about “truth” in the MSM from Lebanon:
    http://tinyurl.com/y6d992
    (Via LGF)

    Posted by andycanuck on 2006 11 14 at 04:32 PM • permalink

  18. Could Fisk be the worst, most incompetent, bigoted and dishonest writer in the English language on the Middle East in our time?

    Ever?

    Can anyone recall a time when Fisk has made a fair, balanced, intelligent and reasonable observation? Can anyone cite an occasion when he has got something right?

    Posted by geoff on 2006 11 14 at 04:37 PM • permalink

  19. # 18 - Geoff,
    “Can anyone cite an occasion when he has got something right?”

    Well, after he was assaulted by that Afghan mob in Pakistan, he implied that he deserved it.  He was right about that, even if he doesn’t share my reasons for believing so.

    Posted by EmilyJones on 2006 11 14 at 04:48 PM • permalink

  20. >Can anyone cite an occasion when he has got something right?

    His name?

    Do you think that Fisk knows his name is associated with a term for correcting a load of junk a journalist wrote line-by-line?

    Posted by Rob Read on 2006 11 14 at 04:50 PM • permalink

  21. I refuse to libel Robert Fisk any more here, on the grounds that it will be completely accurate. 
    I have also found from bitter experience that Fisk is beyond satire, and he clogs my brain with mush whenever I try these days. 
    He is the Ultimate Revenge of The Moonbat.

    Posted by Barrie on 2006 11 14 at 05:15 PM • permalink

  22. I hesitate to raise this question, but I don’t know that anyone else has or will.
    Is Fisk a daddy?
    Has he passed on his cretin-class DNA to a new generation?
    Has the world at least been spared the horror of dealing with Baby Bobfisks?

    Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 11 14 at 05:25 PM • permalink

  23. Baghdad Bob: The Robert Fisk of spokesmen.

    HT: Rebecca.

    Posted by Urbs in Horto on 2006 11 14 at 05:27 PM • permalink

  24. ...Six months hard labor.

    Paco is getting soft in his old age.  Fisk is a propagandist for the enemy posing as a western journalist.  I would settle for giving him what Lord Haw Haw got.

    Posted by trainer on 2006 11 14 at 06:26 PM • permalink

  25. In the spirit of RebeccaH (a truly great mind—nudge, nudge, wink, wink) I propose Robert Fisk be drubbed, er, dubbed “Beirut Bob”.

    Posted by saltydog on 2006 11 14 at 06:28 PM • permalink

  26. Alert Alert Alert

    Can you fine people duck over to The Australian and leave a comment regarding SBS and ABC calling terrorists, terrorists.. My letter got published today and based on yesterday’s thread, Marilyn Sheepherd and friends should be along any second to insist it is Amerikkkka and Israel who are the ‘real terrorists’ and the ABC should be calling them Nazis.

    Thanks.

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2006 11 14 at 06:30 PM • permalink

  27. A pro-Israel spin on all news. That’d be a first. Maybe if you went to Israel you’d find it.

    Even then I’m not so sure. It’s a democracy after all.

    Posted by Henry boy on 2006 11 14 at 06:33 PM • permalink

  28. Batshit Bob has a better ring to it.

    Posted by CB on 2006 11 14 at 06:34 PM • permalink

  29. I’ll happily buy Mr. Fisk a satellite dish so he can get Australia’s ABC and SBS, which must be the only two remaining media outlets in the world where the “narrative of Middle East reporting” is emphatically not dominated by Israeli spin.  Quite the opposite.

    Posted by cuckoo on 2006 11 14 at 07:32 PM • permalink

  30. #24: I meant six months hard labor cutting down trees with a butter knife, with which to build his gallows. Sorry I was unclear.

    Posted by paco on 2006 11 14 at 08:41 PM • permalink

  31. It is a testimony to civility, that some people on this earth still live, breathe and are in societies that allow their bullshit.

    On the other hand, it sure would be nice to be rid of some, if not all of those people.

    Look at it this way, less carbon exhaled, that should please Al, huh?

    Posted by El Cid on 2006 11 14 at 08:57 PM • permalink

  32. #22 - My investigations conclude that Bob Fisk is still childless. However, not for want of trying. According to the man himself his sperm have been irradiated by cunning uranium fueled Jew missiles which made surgical strikes against his satin bag. Alternative sources dispute this and claim that his sperm are fine, but that his mating technique lacks a partner.

    Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 11 14 at 09:10 PM • permalink

  33. Can anyone recall a time when Fisk has made a fair, balanced, intelligent and reasonable observation? Can anyone cite an occasion when he has got something right?

    “Iraqi is not Bosnia” might qualify, if we’re being charitable.

    Posted by PW on 2006 11 14 at 09:39 PM • permalink

  34. Totally offtopic - but I have been trying to play catch-up after a weekend of binging on XFiles - just read the post on the air guitars.

    My fellow Americans, I am ASHAMED of you!!  How could you let a post like that go by without a picture of the Beast of All Boingers, Opus and HIS air guitar?  At LEAST a mention of Deathtongue!!

    *shakes head*

    An AAAAACK! to you!

    Posted by Sharon_Ferguson on 2006 11 14 at 09:52 PM • permalink

  35. “Iraqi is not Bosnia”

    Yeah but, Bosnia is in Iraq, right?

    Speaking of nasty, does anyone else get a real quick mental flash of goatse when ever they read the name Fisk?

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 11 14 at 09:53 PM • permalink

  36. #32 - Good news, and thank you, Infidel.

    Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 11 14 at 10:32 PM • permalink

  37. To Tim Blair - Shall we let the air groupies in now?

    Posted by Sharon_Ferguson on 2006 11 14 at 10:38 PM • permalink

  38. ”....western journalists bear a burden of guilt for the misreporting of the region.”[/i}

    Greenslade seems to have had a moment of moral clarity here. Someone send him a congratualations card.

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2006 11 14 at 11:13 PM • permalink

  39. #12 Good digging Rob Read. This was written ion 2002.

    Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2006 11 14 at 11:21 PM • permalink

  40. </i>
    Use the italics from above, you hoser, don’t do it manually. (Highlight the word and click the style you want.)

    Posted by andycanuck on 2006 11 14 at 11:29 PM • permalink

  41. And my [  /  i ] that I keyed in front of the pointy bracket version that was printed closed the above, not the pointy bracket version.

    Posted by andycanuck on 2006 11 14 at 11:31 PM • permalink

  42. Completely off-topic, but topical.
    The High Court has thrown out the appeal by Australia’s state governments against the federal industrial relations laws.
    There are other ways of handling the employer-employee relationship, too.

    Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2006 11 14 at 11:55 PM • permalink

  43. #40: Hey, the Canadians are fighting each other! Cut it out, eh?

    Posted by paco on 2006 11 15 at 12:06 AM • permalink

  44. O/T re: Alan Jones:

    http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20761955-1702,00.html

    Marcus Schmit is, I think, a.k.a. Marcus Schmidt.

    Charming stuff.

    Posted by lingus4 on 2006 11 15 at 12:15 AM • permalink

  45. #18 geoff

    Could Fisk be the worst, most incompetent, bigoted and dishonest writer in the English language on the Middle East in our time?

    No, J. K. Rowling completely misportrays the Middle East situation in her Harry Potter series. It’s so bad that only children read it.

    Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2006 11 15 at 01:14 AM • permalink

  46. No, J. K. Rowling completely misportrays the Middle East situation in her Harry Potter series. It’s so bad that only children read it.

    Lemme guess. The Weasleys are the Palestinians?
    Lord Valdemort the Americans?
    That would make Harry, OBL?

    Posted by Grimmy on 2006 11 15 at 01:26 AM • permalink

  47. #43 Paco, I went to a blog comments section and a hockey game broke out.

    Posted by andycanuck on 2006 11 15 at 01:32 AM • permalink

  48. #18 geoff

    Could Fisk be the worst, most incompetent, bigoted and dishonest writer in the English language on the Middle East in our time?

    Nah, that’s our friend Antony. Fisk may be the most dishonest professional journalist in the English language, but in that he’s got competition from John Pilger, Alexander Cockburn and various other decrepit Marxist holdouts. I could probably think of some if I wanted to torture myself.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 11 15 at 01:43 AM • permalink

  49. Heh. Cockburn….

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2006 11 15 at 01:56 AM • permalink

  50. Anyone here old enough to remember the Goonshow. Maybe Roy G. is playing the part of his namesake Wallace Greenslade, the only voice of sanity in their world of insanity. 

    It’s not like he’s got a very high bar to cross !

    Posted by rampisadmukerjee on 2006 11 15 at 03:19 AM • permalink

  51. and from Tim’s introduction ...
    That would be the same Robert Fisk who ...

    You’ve got it !!  There are TWO Fisks (any typing error here and it sounds like Joe Louis).

    Fisk #1 - urbane, educated, level-headed, fearless reporter of the truth.  Unfrightened by jew power.

    Fisk #2 - snotty, stupid, biased, crooked spinner of anti-semitic propaganda.
    Owned by oil power.

    Of course, Fisk #1 lives in a parallel universe, occupied by fellow-travelling Guardian/BBC/SBS reporters of the same ilk.  We only know of Fisk #2 in this world.

    Posted by rampisadmukerjee on 2006 11 15 at 03:26 AM • permalink

  52. O/T

    A twist on Fairfax’s Men of No Appearance - Israeli victims with no names.  Reuters, BBC and CNN not reporting the name of the casualty from the latest Palestinian Qassam barrage (a 57-year old woman named Fatima Slutsker).

    Prediction made here that ABC will follow suit.

    Posted by neoZionoid on 2006 11 15 at 06:46 AM • permalink

  53. #44

    Just waiting now for Merri Rose to offer letters for auction she got from Peter Beattie now. She seems pretty desperate for money.

    Posted by amortiser on 2006 11 15 at 08:12 AM • permalink

  54. Antony La-La-JewStein our proud Jewish Plagairiser in Chief has decided to Pilger himself and copy Bobbie Fisk’s shtick for New Matilda  Under his own byline of course.

    Posted by Noelenet on 2006 11 15 at 06:10 PM • permalink

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