I happened to read blogs rather more extensively when the term was fashioned then I do now; so I remember when it was invented. Remember Fisk was covering Afghanistan, and got beaten up by an Afghan mob. And he said something on the lines of "I would have done the same thing in their place" meaning not that it was justified, but that what the Afghan people had gone through would have given anyone a rage against foreigners, especially British and American foreigners. But of course the right wing made a great joke of this, saying that he thought the beating was justified and that if he had not been beaten by the Afghan mob he would have beaten up himself. Although I'm paraphrasing, not quoting he probable worded it infelicitously; but heck you try doing your best writing from a hospital bed with a severe concussion. At any rate, from then on right wing lunatics referred to beating someone up with their own words as "fisking". And apparently it has passed beyond the right wing lunatic fringe.
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