Sunday, August 26, 2007

Fisking Fisk

A couple of people have taken on the task.

Twenty-six H:

It’s perhaps something of cliché, but whenever someone clears their throat by appending “I’m not a racist, but…” to the start of their sentence, you can be all but sure that a racist remark of some kind or another will follow. In a similar vein, Robert Fisk claims that he’s “not a conspiracy theorist” in today’s Independent, and then goes on to perform a flawless impersonation of one.


He takes on Fisk's "questions" one by one, doing a terrific job!

Captain Ed also took on Fisk:

Really, given the international stature of Mr. Fisk, it's hard to believe that he really could be this lazy. Perhaps he's just terribly unintelligent. Fortunately, the journalists and engineers at Popular Mechanics are neither, and their work speaks for itself, with real engineers and eyewitness testimony to answer everyone but the ravers and the conspiracy nuts ... and Mr. Fisk.Really, given the international stature of Mr. Fisk, it's hard to believe that he really could be this lazy. Perhaps he's just terribly unintelligent. Fortunately, the journalists and engineers at Popular Mechanics are neither, and their work speaks for itself, with real engineers and eyewitness testimony to answer everyone but the ravers and the conspiracy nuts ... and Mr. Fisk.


My speculation is that Fisk simply decided to buy some peace from the kooks with this article, that he can't really believe this nonsense, but he's seen the attacks Noam Chomsky, George Monbiot and others have taken from the leftists in the 9-11 Denial Movement, and realized there is little downside to giving this semi-endorsement to the crackpots. Yes, he gets criticized by conservatives and maybe some moderates, but he's quite accustomed to that, and lefties and liberals seem willing to give him a pass.