Malkovich says he'd like to "shoot" Fisk to death.

Sunday, November 2, 2003 (SF Chronicle)
A reporter who thinks objective journalism is a synonym for government
mouthpiece
Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writer

Robert Fisk is used to readers' derisive letters. Usually he ignores
them,
like the one last month from Atlanta that said his article about dead
Iraqis was as "appalling" and "subversive" as a speech by Osama bin
Laden.
For the piece in question, Fisk -- a foreign correspondent with the
London
paper the Independent -- interviewed families of Iraqi civilians who've
been killed (by thieves, robbers, revenge-seekers and unknown
assailants)
since American and British forces deposed Saddam Hussein. In typical
Fisk
fashion, the article is well reported, nicely written -- and full of
polemics, aimed in this case at U.S. and British authorities for
ignoring
"the daily slaughter of Iraq's innocents" (his article estimates 10, 000

civilian deaths in five months) and creating an environment that's as
bad
for Iraqis as it was under Hussein.
"The occupation powers, the 'Provisional Coalition Authority,' love
statistics when they are useful," Fisk wrote. "They can tell you the
number of newly re-opened schools, newly appointed doctors and the
previous day's oil production in seconds. The daily slaughter of Iraq's
innocents, needless to say, is not among their figures."
Objective journalism? Not a bit.
Fisk doesn't believe in the concept, calling it a specious idea that,

as
practiced by American reporters, produces dull and predictable writing
weighed down by obfuscating comments from official government sources.
In the world of Robert Fisk, there's a holy template for how to
report
from the Middle East, Afghanistan and other hot spots: Give readers a
"human" look at unfolding events, put yourself in the story (Fisk pieces

inevitably use "I" a lot, as in "I came to the conclusion . . ."), don't

bog it down with background that readers should know and pepper every
piece with a critical eye on the "why" of things. Why are so many
Baghdad
residents dying under U.S. occupation? Why are American officials
underplaying the sabotage of Iraq's oil pipelines? Why are average
Iraqis
willing to commit suicide-bombings against American soldiers?
Fisk, a brilliant man who has a Ph.D. in political science from
Trinity
College in Ireland, thinks he knows all the answers and so he never
hesitates to finger-point in stories. Fisk's editors at the Independent
approve of this approach -- as do Fisk's legions of fans, many of whom
live in the Bay Area, where his dispatches from Baghdad, Beirut and
elsewhere are devoured like sacred writs for their insight, edge and
rhetorical tone.
Fisk is based in Lebanon. He regularly flies to the Bay Area to gives

speeches for causes he believes in (such as the Middle East Children's
Alliance). In person, Fisk is a surprising mixture of funny and absolute

-- as if God had cloned Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky into a single,
voluminous figure.
"It's our job (as journalists) to challenge the centers of power, and

to
describe with our own vividness the tragedies and injustice and
viciousness of the world, and to try and name the bad guys," Fisk says
in
an interview in San Francisco. "American journalists won't say what I
can
say. I think the New York Times should be called, 'American officials
say.' At least, you'd know what you were reading. If journalism is about

writing (stories) that look like government reports, then I'll go and do

gardening or something."
Fisk's critics believe he's a journalistic provocateur who's
blatantly
anti-United States and anti-Israel. But Fisk is perhaps Britain's most
acclaimed foreign correspondent. He has won the British Press Awards'
International Journalist of the Year honor (the equivalent of the
Pulitzer
Prize for foreign reporting) seven times. Amnesty International and the
United Nations have given awards to Fisk, who speaks often at Harvard,
Princeton, MIT and other prestigious American universities. He is
routinely praised by colleagues, including the New York Times' Chris
Hedges, who has said he admires Fisk's ability to perceive important
stories ahead of other journalists. And, yet, an op-ed column in the
Wall
Street Journal will vilify him (after Fisk was severely beaten by
vengeful
Afghans two years ago). The subtitle to the piece was, "A self-loathing
multiculturalist gets his due." And an actor like John Malkovich -- in a

speech last year to students at Cambridge University in Britain -- will
say he'd like to "shoot" Fisk to death. (Fisk wasn't alone on
Malkovich's
death list; topping it was British Parliamentarian George Galloway, an
anti-war voice who has called President Bush an "imbecile.")
Fisk is an easy target for conservatives because -- like Palestinian
scholar Edward Said, a friend who died last month, Chomsky and other
liberal intellectuals who've been pegged as rabid ideologues -- Fisk
writes sympathetically about Palestinians. It's clear Fisk identifies
with
the suffering of Palestinians, as well as the suffering of Iraqis -- but

he also identifies with the suffering of Israeli civilians and anyone
else
he writes about.
"I was giving a talk last December to a very large group of British
Jews .
. . and I said, 'I'm on your side -- let's fight anti-Semitism
together,
but don't start libeling me,' " Fisk says. "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. And I said, 'I'm
going
to call the police if I have any more messages like this from you. This
is
an abusive, threatening letter.' And he invited me to give a lecture. I
couldn't do it," Fisk continues, starting to laugh, "but I would have
done
it if I'd had the time."
Even Fisk's detractors have to respect his ability to report from
war-
torn areas. He has covered the Middle East for more than 20 years and
speaks fluent Arabic (and French). He has interviewed bin Laden three
times, the second time seven years ago in Afghanistan after the Saudi
personally requested a meeting with him there. True to Fisk's
independent
nature, he didn't rush to meet bin Laden; instead, Fisk told bin Laden's

associate that he'd fly there when he could.
"In 1996," Fisk says, "after the Sudanese chucked him out, there were

rumors bin Laden had gone to Yemen or Afghanistan; I got a call one day
from Switzerland, from a man who said, '(bin Laden) wants to meet you.'
I
said, 'I'd be happy to see him. What do I do?' He said, 'You fly to
Jallalabad (Afghanistan) and you wait at the Spinghar Hotel. When will
you
leave?' I said,
'I'll let you know. Call me back in a week.' I thought, 'I'm not
going to
let him snap his fingers and then I come. I have work to do also.' "
The last time Fisk interviewed bin Laden, in 1997 in Afghanistan, bin

Laden told him, "From this mountain, Mr. Robert, upon which you are
sitting, we beat the Russian army and helped break the Soviet Union. And

I
pray to God that he allows us to turn America into a shadow of itself."
When Fisk first heard about the Sept. 11 attacks -- as he was on an
airplane flying from Europe to the United States -- he knew bin Laden
was
behind them. Fisk used a phone on the jet to dictate a piece to the
Independent that condemned the carnage, linked it to bin Laden -- and
also
said that Arabs would compare the tragedy to the sanctions-related
deaths
of Iraqi children and Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, and

that Britain's and America's historic policies contributed to a climate
of
resentment in the Arab world.
If Fisk were working for a daily U.S. paper, his dispatches would
always
be pushed to the opinion pages, where they'd be treated as interpretive
journalism. The fact that Fisk's stories usually appear in the main news

section of the Independent is galling to readers who disagree with his
views.
The Internet has given Fisk a more international audience, though The

Independent recognized the popularity of Fisk's articles and now charges

readers to access them. Some articles are available for free at a Web
site
devoted to Fisk's work (www.robert-fisk.com), where readers deluge Fisk
with requests and plaudits. "I have been an admirer of your work for
many
years," a public defender from West Virginia recently wrote on the site.

"You are an inspiration to many of us; please keep up the good fight."
That's a good description of what Fisk is doing: fighting. The type
of
journalism he practices is pugilistic and he holds nothing back. Fisk
says
his style is the most principled kind of writing he can do -- and that
he'll never alter it. At a time when the Middle East is a cauldron of
violence, Fisk's voice of authority is an important one to hear, whether

you agree with him or not.
E-mail Jonathan Curiel at jcuriel@....

***

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST