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Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 07:34 am
Fisking Central notes the following item in Private Eye:
Interviewing John Malkovich in the Observer two months ago, Lynn Barber asked about his alleged hatred of Robert Fisk, the Indie’s Middle East correspondent.
“No one has thinner skins than journalists, in my experience, and I come from a family of them,” he replied. “They can dish it out, but they can’t take it. But the reason I don’t like the topic, why I don’t really say anything about a whiner like Fisk, is it gives them more oxygen.”
Prescient words: Fisk’s lawyers fired off a letter threatening to sue. The Observer has now been forced to apologise and to remove all Malkovich’s comments about the Indie hack from its online archive – thus giving him even less oxygen.
Fisk, naturally, is yet to apologise for his recent claim that “Israeli missiles had pierced the very centre of the red cross painted on the roof” of two Red Cross ambulances. Speaking of which, wouldn’t that ambulance story make an excellent MythBusters episode? Fisk could play the role of the driver, protected from missile blast by the sturdy driver’s canopy.
UPDATE. Dan Lewis:
Regular viewers of Mythbusters know that where they attempt to recreate a scenario according to the urban myth and can’t (busting the myth) they then try to recreate it using various additional props and technology.
In this case, it would be a crappy episode. They couldn’t recreate the ambulance missile strike as reported, for it’s absolutely impossible to recreate what Fisk, Chulov and others reported.
wouldn’t that ambulance story make an excellent MythBusters episode
No.
Regular viewers of Mythbusters know that where they attempt to recreate a scenario according to the urban myth and can’t (busting the myth) they then try to recreate it using various additional props and technology.
In this case, it would be a crappy episode. They couldn’t recreate the ambulance missile strike as reported, for it’s absolutely impossible to recreate what Fisk, Chulov and others reported.
I think the whole story would be more suited to Penn and Teller’s show Bullshit on Channel Nine.
- I agree with #3. The episode would go something like: Adam and Jaimie track down an ambulance. Then, reproducing the myth, they have a missile fired from an Israeli aircraft (which is actually a few pounds of dynamite placed on a I-beam that is suspended on a quick-release above the vehicle) detonate inside the ambulence, thus destroying the ambulence completely as well as the myth. With the most spectacular portion of the myth out of the way, the remaining 45 minutes consists of Adam and Jaimie tracking down another ambulence and wailing on it with random hand-held tools to recreate the effects of the myth, which would be boring.
Plus, Penn and Teller can say “Fuck you” to Reuters and not be bleeped.
- Hhhmm, first find a ‘bloodless model victim’ to have a leg sheered off and cauterised at he same time, then find a secret Israeli ‘very localised blast’ missile to hit the leg but not explode [except for a loud bang and a flash of light], then disappear without trace, then show how ‘rockets’ can also explode around the ambulance without causing any damage to its sides, then investigate ‘instant rust’ issues and strange-looking external roof holes done by ‘small arms fire from a drone’, then show how possibly septic wounds heal overnight, then….
Are you talking about a whole new SERIES?
- Surprisingly the ambulance missile strike hasn’t yet made it onto http://snopes.com/snopes.asp
- John Malkovich is one brilliant man. I greatly respect this person, before because of his excellent acting, and now because his lucid and insightful takes on current events.Posted by wronwright on 2006 10 01 at 07:51 AM • permalink
- #4
But the part where they recreate the myth with a real Israeli hellfire missile would be brilliant, especially with FIsk in the driver’s seat.Posted by Rachel Corrie’s Flatmate on 2006 10 01 at 07:58 AM • permalink
- Debi,
Makes him a good match for his militant Muslim pals who, incensed at the comment that Islam preaches violence, want to kill innocent people in the name of Islam to prove the opposite.I become more convinced every day that both by the letties and by the Muzzie militants, logic is never even tried.
Posted by Michael Lonie on 2006 10 01 at 09:21 PM • permalink
- I see that Fisk is an upcoming guest on BBC’s Desert Island Disks .
I wonder whether his eight discs will include any of the following ditties: “Lyin’ Eyes” by the Eagles; “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)” by the Crystals; or “Would I Lie to You?” by the Eurythmics.
Posted by procrustes on 2006 10 02 at 03:38 AM • permalink
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If the canopy itself is sturdy enough, then the driver doesn’t need to be. That’s important if a perilously thin-skinned journalist like Fisk is the driver—then don’t stint on the canopy!