Robert Fisk Should Join The Conversation

I know this because a Twitter friend of mine – Paul Bradshaw, who writes the excellent Online Journalism Blog - sent a message out into the virtual universe: “Great post by @davelee on Robert Fisk speech in NZ: “To hell with the web – it’s got no responsibility.”

The tweet arrived whilst I was watching a BBC documentary on Google Video entitled ‘The Nazis and the Final Solution‘. Thanks to internet pirates and online video things, it is easily watchable in several short parts, informative, of course, and thought provoking.

Serious Tweets

Whilst waiting for one section of the documentary to resume playing, I clicked the link in Paul’s tweet and saw that David Lee, in turn, had blogged about a New Zealand newswire item published on Sept. 11th concerning the conference given by Robert Fisk earlier that week:

“Mr Fisk said the internet had led to the erosion of quality writing. He recalled being challenged about a quote of his that had been published on a website – although he had never said it. “But I read it on the internet,” was the response, to which Mr Fisk simply hung up.”

Only a day or so previously, a friend of mine had read a message I had tweeted pointing to an article comparing US casualty figures in Iraq and Afghanistan versus the first 9 years of the Vietnam war.

He replied via Facebook to ‘talk’ about the size of the American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan relative to other US wars, and pointed me to another interesting page.

Serious Blogging and Participation

Many bloggers and others on the internet are trying to be a bit more serious about their writing and participation than Robert Fisk suggests.

Recently, for example, parts of the blogosphere have been buzzing with news, opinions and support for Moroccan blogger Mohammed Erraji who explained his own reasons for blogging before being arrested and tried for the views he expressed in one of his posts:

“I am of independent thought, and I don’t like to be anyone’s follower. When I have a certain stance towards an issue, I defend it ferociously. In return, I listen to others, accept dialogue with everybody, and when I disagree with someone, I disagree with their thoughts and stances only, and I have no personal conflicts with anyone.”

There are lots of examples of people using blogs for serious purposes.

Robert Fisk Should Participate

No-one seems to have recorded and uploaded a video of Robert Fisk’s conference question and answer session, which is a shame because in the newswire report – following his comments on the lack of responsibility on the web – he is reported as saying that the internet has led to the erosion of quality writing and as becoming furious at people misquoting him.

Had someone taped his conference (and if anyone has and knows where to find it, they could leave a link in the comments), we could all watch and listen to exactly what he said, leaving no room for doubt and plenty of room for genuine conversation.

I agree with him about both the increase of idle gossip that the internet has produced and the wrongness of not informing properly by cropping photos that might put someone off their breakfast when they pick up their morning paper. I have defended such views amongst friends for years.

I also believe, however, that participation on the internet is a wonderful opportunity for those people with more serious ideas if they can understand its possibilities.

His ideas and writing are already extremely popular: as well as his Independent column, there is an unofficial fan website whose web address is his own name, a well-referenced Wikipedia article and he has given rise to a controversial new verb – Fisking.

It could be frustrating if he doesn’t have much control over any of the above for one reason or another but it appears that thousands of people do indeed want to read much more about his experiences and ideas, especially in today’s confusing world and especially about the area he knows most about.

He already has what thousands of would-be bloggers long for with their own ideas – the attention of hordes expectant readers. He has built up good brand recognition.

Blogging seems to require above all a strong, independent voice and top-quality content. I think his high-quality, experienced, “unrelenting, furious, pernickety, labyrinthinal arguments,” (to slightly misquote the Guardian) are just what the blogoshpere needs more of, not less.

But it would require him to participate instead of criticising.

If he took the time to tell us about all of those important but unreported stories and show us the photos that news editors refuse to publish, I’m quite sure there would be thousands of us willing to listen to his words and participate with him from his point of view.

I’m equally sure that there would be bloggers willing to help him learn the technicalities of how to blog, if that were the obstacle.