Robert Fisk is Middle East correspondent for Britain's Independent, based in Beirut, and author of the highly acclaimed "Pity The Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon", the fruit of twenty-six years' of reporting from Lebanon, where he covered the civil war and two Israeli invasions. Educated in Britain and Ireland, Fisk has a doctorate in political science and holds more journalism awards--twenty-four--than any other foreign correspondent for his reporting of the Iranian revolution and wars in Lebanon, the Gulf, Kosovo and Algeria. These include the Amnesty International award, British International Journalist of the Year Award and John Hopkins SIAS-CIBA prize.
In a December 6 Counterspin interview, Fisk said the following:
I don't think the press follows an agenda. I think what happens is that your [American] press in particular, and I'm talking about what we would call the "mainstream newspapers" -- though they shouldn't be mainstream -- I mean I'm talking about the Post and the Times and the L.A. Times, along with the television networks, they have come to have a very cozy relationship with power. Journalists like power. We journalists, we like to be close to people who have power, people in authority, people in the administration, people in government, and we've reached a point now where we are so fearful of losing access to people in power that we basically go along with what they want to say.
You only have to look at the press conferences involving George Bush or Dick Cheney or Condoleezza Rice to see the Bill, Janet, Gene -- the cozy first-name relationship, the almost incestuous relationship between the State Department correspondent and the State Department, the Pentagon correspondent and the Pentagon. You'll always see in the newsroom in New York the anchorman saying, "Well, uh, Bob, what is the State Department saying?" "Well, the State Department is saying..." And instead of being what that great Israeli journalist Amira Hass described as "monitors of the centers of power" -- which is what we should be -- the journalists become mouthpieces. The French have a lovely word "fonctionnaires" (functionaries) of power. In other words, we want to put on our front page stories from the inside saying "Officials say..." and that is good enough, even if the officials are lying through their teeth.
Over and over again I read in the Post and the Times, "intelligence officials." Now there's one thing that intelligence officials share in common whether they are American, British, Arab, Israeli, Russian, or anyone else: they lie through their teeth. But their word is now accepted, like a biblical word, "Officials say..." You know, there should be a newspaper called "Officials Say." You look at the New York Times over the course of the next seven days, or the Washington Post, or the L.A. Times, and see how many first paragraphs end with the words "..., officials say." It is this cozy and incestuous relationship which is built up between journalists and power which is the cause of this. You only have to see, for example, when American correspondents visit cities in the Middle East, one of the first things they do is they go for a briefing at the American Embassy. Why in God's name? They can live in Washington if they want that!
This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Last modified: Sun Jan 26 18:49:34 CST 2003