Beyond Fisking
A post on Tim Blair’s blog gives this summary of Robert Fisk’s position on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as set out in an interview yesterday with the ABC’s Tony Jones:
“Zarqawi is just a figurehead whom we just are encouraged to loathe, who, at the end of the day, is not a person whom we need to worry about. Although he is a problem for all of us (Fisk, too). The West bestializes Zarqawi, although he is genuinely a bad guy (no doubt about it). It is wrong for us to paint the Middle East as a fight between good and evil, although Bin Laden and Zarqawi are monstrous. We created Zarqawi, although he created himself, and we helped, although he used to exist as a fantasy figure created by American propaganda. The media perpetuates these myths every time it blames Zarqawi, although he is to blame, and it would be absolutely wrong for reporters to ignore the things he is to blame for. Zarqawi’s existence supports American propaganda, but his continued existence is also a severe blow to American credibility.”
Don’t believe it? The full transcript is here.
“Zarqawi is just a figurehead whom we just are encouraged to loathe, who, at the end of the day, is not a person whom we need to worry about. Although he is a problem for all of us (Fisk, too). The West bestializes Zarqawi, although he is genuinely a bad guy (no doubt about it). It is wrong for us to paint the Middle East as a fight between good and evil, although Bin Laden and Zarqawi are monstrous. We created Zarqawi, although he created himself, and we helped, although he used to exist as a fantasy figure created by American propaganda. The media perpetuates these myths every time it blames Zarqawi, although he is to blame, and it would be absolutely wrong for reporters to ignore the things he is to blame for. Zarqawi’s existence supports American propaganda, but his continued existence is also a severe blow to American credibility.”
Don’t believe it? The full transcript is here.
posted by Stephen Stratford at 12:43 PM
10 Comments:
Brilliant. A sadly accurate summary. He must have been pissed.
Remove that question mark, please.
Let the last line read "Don't believe it."
Make us read the transcript which is at least intelligible, unlike that caricature of a summary.
Has Mr Fisk out-fisked himself this time? Or should one call it auto-fisking? Meta-fisking even?
John, that's why I posted the link to the transcript so everyone could see exactly what Fisk said, and how accurate the summary was. You may think what Fisk said was "at least intelligible". I think it's gibberish. And I have to agree with Anonymous - Fisk must have been pissed, or at best very tired and emotional. He is, after all, a journalist (and a good one - no argument there).
An example of gibberish: "You know, the issue is, are we in fact creating these creatures for ourselves to hate or are they creating themselves? In other words, are we being promoted by these people? Are these people being put before us as caricatures, if you like, to hate or are they people who are there to be hated by us in order to make the, you know, them and us, evil/good caricatures, which George W. Bush has laid out before us?"
Pissed or not - and Fisk obviously contradicts himself a number of times - I think it's a dangerous business assessing a person's state of mind, intelligence or sobriety (whoever they may be), purely on the basis of a transcript. Sadly, the more accurate your transcription, the less coherent the interviewee's comments will seem. Fisk has certainly been clearer, but the tenor of this, as I read it, is that certain governments invest these Bogeymen with as much terror as they can to suit their purposes. When you draw blood, it doesn't really matter whether it ends up on your own hands or on the hands of those you choose to do your dirty work.
Read the actual transcript
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s1624572.htm
The words in quotation marks on Tim Blair's site are a biased little summary, not was Fisk actually says.
Unlike Timmy boy Fisk actually goes to the war zones to see for himself what is happening, I know who I believe.
On the subject a good take here (from a source that is not at all left-wing)
http://www.exile.ru/2005-June-03/war_nerd.html
There is a link to the transcript clearly marked on the original post.
I'm not saying there is not, however a fairer introdution to the part in quotes might be.
"Some talentless right-wing loony, who is sad enough to waste time on paranoid hack Tim Blair's joke of a site, managed to stop drooling long enough to produce this laughable misunderstandng of highly respected journalist Robert Fisk's comments on ABC."
Now that would be fair and balanced.
Hilarious. If he was sober during this interview, imagine what he's like when he's had a few.
Most excellent and accurate.
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