A reporter who thinks objective journalism is a synonym for government mouthpiece by Jonathan Curiel
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 at sfchronicle.com.