Franked and Fisked

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED:

eFrank has a tasty bit of gossip about Peter C. Newman being tapped by the Asper family to write a hagiography of the late Israel (Izzy) Asper. Unfortunately, I can't steal a clip of it because it's techno-copy-protected. Besides, I'll probably get sued -- but not by eFrank. More likely by the family because eFrank has lots of titillating details about the life and loves of the media mogul who founded the CanWest Global empire.

However, in poring over the posting, I discovered that those e-kidders also wrote about me.

Frank implies that, being a bloggerista, I somehow missed, in all my rhapsodizing about the Independent's foreign correspondent Robert Fisk, that he doesn't have email, use the Internet or read blogs.

Ummmmmmmmm????

But I did. I did indeed. At least twice.

First, here in this very blog:

UPPITY DATE: As blogoficianados well know, ''fisking'' is the term coined by right-whingers to describe ripping apart columns by writers they don't like.

Fisk is one of their prime targets, mostly because, unlike them in their air conditioned basements, he's actually out there in the war zones seeing the blood and guts for himself. They can't handle the truth.

Anyway here's the joke. I had to define what a blog is for Fisk. He doesn't read blogs. He doesn't use the Internet. He doesn't even have email. He's actually out there in the field, observing and reporting.

Once I recovered from my shock, I thought that was pretty damn funny.

And here, in my treeware column of Nov 28. Note the part in pink:

Author doesn't give a flying Fisk about fisking

The controversial British foreign correspondent whose name birthed the ugliest phrase in the blogosphere — "being fisked" — doesn't know what it means. "I have to be honest: I don't use the Internet. I've never seen a blog in my life. I don't even use email," says the Independent's Robert Fisk. "I don't waste my time with this. I am not interested. I couldn't care less. I think the Internet has become a hate machine for a lot of people and I want nothing to do with it."

Interestingly, eFrank cites a Dec. 8 Guardian "Media Monkey'' entry as evidence of Fisk's ignorance of and distaste for the Internet. That's pretty funny: The Media Monkey quotes Fisk directly from my column -- without attribution.

Beware the hate machine
The Independent's Middle Eastern correspondent Robert Fisk has entered the American language. Right-wing bloggers have taken to referring to "being fisked" - the deconstruction of one of his pieces of reportage critical of US policy in Afghanistan and the Middle East. If it's meant to bug him, it doesn't. "I don't use the Internet. I've never seen a blog in my life. I don't even use email," he says. "I don't waste my time with this. I am not interested. I couldn't care less. I think the Internet has become a hate machine for a lot of people and I want nothing to do with it."

I'm flattered.

I did love the eFrank photo of me, and the line about ''the school of hard knockers.'' 

I should be so lucky.

RADIO DATE: eFrank mentions CBC Radio's Anna Maria Tremonte Tremonti who also interviewed Fisk. Coincidentally, I am going to be on The Current tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. (EST) with Regret the Error's Craig Silverman and Globe and Mail deputy editor Sylvia Stead discussing the media mistakes of 2005. (UPDATE: As reader Eric. E. pointed out, I erred in spelling Anna Maria's family name. Ironically, in the live east-coast cast, she erred in pronouncing Sylvia Stead's name. It just never ends!)

MORNING AFTER DATE: Reader Diana Marie alerted Media Monkey who has updated the post to link to my column. Blogging is just so darn dynamic, isn't it?

Comments

[anoonymoosey]

Okay, that explains why you havn't bothered to hold any CBC journalistic feet to the, er smoke, lately.

Appearances to look the other way when CBC ignores John Duffy, or Helene Chalifour-Sherrer or a schlocky confidential campaign informant, or...?

[Robert McClelland]

"I am going to be on The Current tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. . . . discussing the media mistakes of 2005."

So I guess that's going to be an all day show then.

[Diana-Marie]

Hmmmm, attribution re the Fisk quotation in Guardian has belatedly appeared ... better late then never!

[Joe Clark]

How in the world is the _Frank_ article “techno-copy-protected”? While I would put nothing past the technical incompetence of Michael Bate, even if the article is just an image of words, you can retype them to quote for criticism.

[Antonia Z.]

It's a JOKE, Joe.

You can't cut and paste is all. And I am too lazy to type that much.

Besides, I think eFrank is entitled to make a buck off its original content.

[Simon Pole]

What browser are you using Antonia? If its I.E., that might be your problem.

Switching to Firefox might allow you to cut and paste. If that doesn't work right away, you can try the "Edit Page" command under the Firefox "File" Menu -- this often allows you to bypass copy protection to cut and paste.

[Journo 101]

I hope Mr. Fisk researchers his articles better than he researched the e-world before making his "hate-world" pronouncements from on high. The Middle East is a very dynamic place, with a dynamic and well-wired culture. If he is out-of-hand ignoring that whole world, he is missing some major components of the big picture.

[Diana-Marie]

Journo 101 says (re Robert Fisk's dislike of the e-world), "The Middle East is a very dynamic place, with a dynamic and well-wired culture. If he is out-of-hand ignoring that whole world, he is missing some major components of the big picture."
I trust you jest Journo! Fisk has lived in the ME for thirty years, speaks the language, knows the history of the entire region inside out and has written a number of substantial books on the subject. Few journalists can have greater awareness of the ME 'dynamics'.

[Brampton Pete]

Here's wannabe-Luddite Robert "The Masochist" Fisk from waaaaay back in 2003:

http://tinyurl.com/agefm

“If you stand up to people, they’ll respect you for it. I had an e-mail from a Cambridge University American law student, and he said, 'You are an evil f—man,' so I called him up — he put his telephone number on it."

Didn't know what a blog was... yeah, right. Much as it pains me to say, I doubt even Fisk is THAT out-of-touch. Congenital liar, perhaps.

[Antonia Z.]

He told me that emails to the Independent are forwarded to him. That's one.

Two: he also told me that, by the time some of his colleagues have finished perusing their newspapers and such online, he's been out in the streets (or wherever) and done his interviews and is filing his story.

Somebody has to bring back the original reports that people like you Pete like to fisk. That means they have to get out of their pajamas and get out of the house.