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FISK DENIED SCURRYING RIGHTS
“When did the sands run out for us journalists?” asks Robert Fisk, pondering the kidnapping of reporters by Middle Eastern goons. “When did the moment of immunity pass away?”
Robert wonders if immunity was lost when journalists wore flak jackets during the 1990 Gulf War, or due to “cancerous, repetitive use” of the word “terrorism” in news reports, or “when we grew used to what Martin Bell calls the ‘two palm trees’, the Monty Python-like shrubbery that stands as a back-lot to almost every BBC report from the roof of its Baghdad office”.
Familiarity with palm trees provokes abductions? Talk about your root causes. But Fisk is just biding time before his default blame-apportioner kicks in:
Neither the Americans nor the British want us scurrying around unsupervised in Iraq, nosing out the lies of our governments, uncovering the dirty deeds of the US air force in Iraq or, for that matter, in Afghanistan.
Fisk knows they’re lying even before he’s found the evidence. According to Fisk, he enjoyed easy travel throughout the Middle East before 1983, after which negotiations with local gunmen became fraught (“America kills Muslims. Why you want to kill Muslims? Are you a spy?”). Now the poor fellow can’t go anywhere:
We cannot move in most of Iraq for fear of being butchered by our countries’ enemies. We cannot move in southern Afghanistan. Italian journalists might be ransomed by their governments. Afghan journalists - I am thinking of the reporter/translator of the Italian who was kidnapped - simply have their heads chopped off.
Note: by Fisk’s formulation, this is the fault of the West, not of the people actually killing journalists. They’re mere reactive lifeforms, like territorial insects.
Never has reporting been so circumscribed by these terrors. Never have we been so poorly informed.
Well, not since Fisk’s previous column, anyway. Fisk asked at the top of this piece: “When did the moment of immunity pass away?” Now he supplies an answer - during World War II:
When an AP correspondent was dropped with American troops behind enemy lines, the Germans executed him along with their other prisoners.
But that doesn’t count:
This is not the Second World War. Nor is it - Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara, please note - World War Three. We are illegally fighting wars across the Middle East, supporting occupation and - by our frivolous support for the most objectionable governments - killing tens of thousands of innocents.
Fisk doesn’t identify these “most objectionable governments”. Hmmm.
As journalists we can oppose this. We can raise our voices against these great injustices. But only if we are free. Yes, of course, I add my voice to those demanding the release of Alan Johnston. His imprisonment is a disaster for the Palestinians and for all the Arabs of the Middle East.
It’s more of a disaster for Alan Johnston, but Fisk is looking at the big picture:
As long as he is held, how can we cover the atrocities of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Gaza?
(Via Chris T., who observes that Fisk doesn’t mention Daniel Pearl.)
Any journos reporting on Australia, well, if I see gum trees in the background, let’s just say I’ll get all jihad on your arse.
Posted by flying pigs over mecca on 2007 05 02 at 10:29 AM • permalink“As long as he is held, how can we cover the atrocities of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Gaza?”
You would think Britain has only two journalists, Alan Johnston and Fisk. Can’t they rustle up some more? But then again seeing as what happened to Johnston maybe the rest of them are having second thoughts.
Ah, the poor journalists, stripped of their Olympian moral superiority and cast down in the muck with the rest of us filth-diggers and cat-floggers.
No wonder the press idolizes the Palestinians. Neither of these debased subsets of humanity can learn from experience worth a damn.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 05 02 at 10:47 AM • permalinkWhen an AP correspondent was dropped with American troops behind enemy lines, the Germans executed him along with their other prisoners
My readers would like to know the names of these reporters, Mr. Fisk.
Also, which soldiers were executed when captured.
Can you offer us some proof of your allegations, Mr. Fisk.
Posted by Go Canucks on 2007 05 02 at 11:09 AM • permalinkHell, Rebecca, I’d pay the terrorists to keep Fisk. And I’d think we’d have to pay…..who wants that moron in their midst?
And of course Fisk didn’t mention Daniel Pearl; why give the Joooooos any press?
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 05 02 at 11:12 AM • permalinkGo Canucks, I suppose Fiskie is referring to Joe Morton. But it’s a silly comparison….Fiskie seems to be conflating Nazi Germany with the United States.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 05 02 at 11:18 AM • permalinkNeither the Americans nor the British want us scurrying around unsupervised in Iraq
Au contraire, dipshit. I’m sure Americans, Brits, and Aussies would love for you to “scurry around unsupervised in Iraq.” I know I could certainly live with the consequences of that. Could you?
Useless oxygen thief.
Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2007 05 02 at 11:35 AM • permalinkConsidering all the hot air that’s coming out of him, I think we should execute Fisk as a primary contributor to global warming. Two problems solved at once.
Posted by Tungsten Monk on 2007 05 02 at 11:40 AM • permalink“butchered by our countries’ enemies”.
Hey, Fisk,
I don’t think that if the US, UK, etc. caught you scurrying around Iraq that they would really butcher you. Its your people that are doing that.
Posted by Son of a Pig and a Monkey on 2007 05 02 at 11:48 AM • permalinkThanks for the info T_R_J.
But this just confirms my belief that Fisk was manipulating the facts, as the Germans did not execute POWs as a rule.
Joe Morton was not with American troops but with OSS Spies.
He was executed as a spy, not as a journalist.
Posted by Go Canucks on 2007 05 02 at 11:57 AM • permalinkScurrying? As in: “There’s a rat scurrying around the Middle East trading his country’s honor in order to pass along enemy propaganda.”
I thought ol’ Fiskie understood that he deserves to be beaten, kidnapped, beheaded, or whatever. Didn’t I read something he wrote to that effect? Or was it an affect? One way or the other, in this instance I happen to think he deserves beheading.
(wronwright takes a leaf from the leftist handbook)
Why would Islamists and terrorists kidnap journalists? Well, we have to look at the root cases. Such as, you ask? Well, for one, the fact that Auntie Annie charges $2.75 for a pretzel hot dog now. And damn it all, they only had one left. One couldn’t fill up my big toe. It only reminds me of how delicious a second one would have been.
If I want two, I have to wait 7 minutes for them to bake another set, or so I was told. Seven minutes my ass. First of all, there’s no “them”. Only one dude, very short, extremely nerdish, who one can safely project to have reached the pinnacle of his career, at the old age of 22.
And it takes the guy much longer than 7 minutes because he has to hand roll them with very small hands. All the while, stopping in mid roll each time another customer wants a pretzel. And then he goes back to rolling, after being first reminded to wash his dirty little hands since he handled money. So after washing his hands, wiping them on some dirty wash rag, he’d begin wrapping another hot dog and stop in mid roll because another customer wants a pretzel. This just goes on and on in a sickenly repetitive motion.
Could Mr. Pretzel Franchise just roll one hot dog and stick it in the oven? One would think so. But no, he has to roll 10 hot dogs. It’s 10 or none. Scales of efficiency are at play here. But how long does it take to roll 10 hot dogs and bake them when he can only roll half a hot dog before stopping to ring up a customer? Longer than my patience, that’s for sure.
This is blatantly unfair. So abominably unfair that it’s only natural that the poor Arabs protest in the only way available to them: by kidnapping effete journalists.
Posted by wronwright on 2007 05 02 at 12:18 PM • permalinkDr. Alice, I agree that Fisk is an idiot, but a number of leftie friends of mine keep on offering “international law” as the reason that the Iraq war is illegal. As in, “The UN didn’t bless the war”, which is probably where Fiskie is coming from.
So send your application for war to the UN General Assembly, New York, New York, with a check or money order for US$999,999,999.99. This fee is waived for terrorists and Marxist governments.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 05 02 at 01:15 PM • permalinkNor is it - Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara, please note - World War Three.
Well, he is right about that. It’s actually World War Four.
I would have thought that a man who found the thugs who beat him up so endearing would be absolutely enraptured by those who would behead him. Where’s the love, Bobby?
TRJ, I suppose those same friends stood four-square behind the UN/Arab nations-sanctioned Gulf War and objected strenuously to NATO actions in Bosnia/Kosovo. Right?!
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 05 02 at 02:20 PM • permalinkInteresting that many bloggers(i.e. Michael Totten) have been wandering around the middle east, taking pictures, mixing with military and locals, sending home reports, collecting no salary,pay their own expenses( except what they get via paypal donations from readers) and doing far and away more excellant reporting than “professional” journalists do, yet you dont see them whining about this crap.
More proof that professional journalism is a sheltered workshop for hothouse flowers.
TRJ, I suppose those same friends stood four-square behind the UN/Arab nations-sanctioned Gulf War and objected strenuously to NATO actions in Bosnia/Kosovo. Right?!
BUAWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Thanks for the good laugh, Kyda…..I needed it!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 05 02 at 03:28 PM • permalinkNeither the Americans nor the British want us scurrying around unsupervised in Iraq
Is this the same hero reporter who proudly stated that he knew the Lancet Iraq dead estimate was correct or even too few because he bravely checked out all the morgues in Baghdad and added up the count, as a rare on-the-street journalist, unlike all his colleagues?
This guy says anything that makes him look good and the West look bad…
Spot on. Fisk doesn’t mention Daniel Pearl. He also doesn’t Marshall Tito, Ptolemy, or Patty Hearst.
Posted by Miranda Divide on 2007 05 02 at 08:06 PM • permalinkSpot on. Fisk doesn’t mention Daniel Pearl. He also doesn’t Marshall Tito, Ptolemy, or Patty Hearst.
He doesn’t mention you either, Miranda. Why would that be?
Oh, yeah! You’re not relevant.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 05 02 at 08:45 PM • permalinkAs journalists we can oppose this. We can raise our voices against these great injustices.....
Odd that Baghdad Bob saw no irony in this statement- I thought journalists were impartial observers and reporters, wheras what he is describing would be normally regarded as an activist or advocate.
Surely fiskie’s not inferring that a great swathe of the fourth estate is agenda-driven, and thus unfit to be employed in their chosen field, and should also be regarded by the public as lobbyists?
The Sand Goblins are going to be the least of your worries, matey.
I’d like to have my own go at fisking fisk:
Neither the Americans nor the British want us scurrying around unsupervised in Iraq, nosing out the lies of our governments, uncovering the dirty deeds of the US air force in Iraq or, for that matter, in Afghanistan.
They probably don’t want you scurrying around unsupervised because (a) you’d get kidnapped and beheaded on TV, (b) you’d helpfully point out American and British positions to your Jihadist buddies and (c) you’d make up lies about how wonderful the barbaric murderers are and how horrible the liberators are and publish them in your rag.
We cannot move in most of Iraq for fear of being butchered by our countries’ enemies. We cannot move in southern Afghanistan. Italian journalists might be ransomed by their governments. Afghan journalists - I am thinking of the reporter/translator of the Italian who was kidnapped - simply have their heads chopped off.
Newsflash, moron - people who would butcher you are YOUR enemies too. Maybe it’s THEM you should complain to about the head-chopping, not us.
Never has reporting been so circumscribed by these terrors. Never have we been so poorly informed.
You’ve been poorly informed all along, bud. It’s just that now you have an excuse for it.
When an AP correspondent was dropped with American troops behind enemy lines, the Germans executed him along with their other prisoners.
Maybe if the Americans followed the same rules (i.e. the Geneva and Hague conventions) they’d execute the terrorists and the journalists who provide them with propaganda, too. Fat chance of that, though.
This is not the Second World War. Nor is it - Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara, please note - World War Three. We are illegally fighting wars across the Middle East, supporting occupation and - by our frivolous support for the most objectionable governments - killing tens of thousands of innocents.
Objectionable governments? Oh, yeah, that’s right, the Iraqi government is now a democracy. You, being a communist, obviously find that objectionable.
As journalists we can oppose this. We can raise our voices against these great injustices. But only if we are free. Yes, of course, I add my voice to those demanding the release of Alan Johnston. His imprisonment is a disaster for the Palestinians and for all the Arabs of the Middle East.
Why don’t you raise your voices against the real injustice - all the innocent people who are slaughtered by the terrorists, and their dreams which are ruined? Because you’re a worthless excuse for a human being, I suppose. Why don’t you care if the Iraqis are free? If they could swap positions with you, I’m pretty sure they’d do it.
As long as he is held, how can we cover the atrocities of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Gaza?
I think I speak for many people when I say that your inability to cover atrocities is no great loss. After all, you normally ignore actual atrocities anyway. I mean, why bother writing an article about the mass graves found in Iraq, when it doesn’t cast Bushilter in a poor enough light?
Thank you.Miranda is clearly on our side, and handing us horribly weak straw-man arguments to demolish with casual ease. This most recent example is the clearest, a non-sequitur that s/he(ep) is pretending to put forward as a serious argument in order to make his/her leftist persona look transparently stupid.
I’d say “The jig is up!” and triumphantly tear off that rubber mask to reveal wronright or maybe paco, except I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have been so clunkingly obvious.
So whoeveer you are, Miranda, stop it. You’re making us look bad with your transparently insincere attempts to make us look bad; you’d need to make us look much worse to make us look good- as it is, if we were to look good by comparison to your faked badness, it could only be if you tried much harder to look good at looking bad.
Well, as Louis L’Amour would have put it, “The sand ran out for journalists when the journalists ran out of sand…”
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 05 03 at 09:55 PM • permalink“When did the sands run out for us journalists?” Since journalists took up one side or the other? Meaning since forever? Get used to it Fiskie, the media war these days is just as important, if not more so, than the shooting war.
Posted by dean martin on 2007 05 04 at 02:48 AM • permalink
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Ah, I think he made a small mistake there. He meant the most objectionable government.