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Thursday, September 30, 2004
Pre-fisking the "60 Minutes" yellowcake story
How cool is this? Jim Lindgren at The Volokh Conspiracy is pre-fisking CBS News' temporarily delayed/shelved story on Saddam's efforts to buy yellowcake uranium. Actually, Jim fisks MoveOn.org's demands that CBS News run with the story even though it's bogus. Gosh, I wonder who could be behind MoveOn.org's pressuring ... and whether his middle name could be "Micah"? Just a hunch.
Posted by Beldar at 12:42 AM in Global War on Terror, Mainstream Media, Politics (2006 & earlier) | Permalink
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Comments
(1) Dan made the following comment | Sep 30, 2004 12:54:36 AM | Permalink
From MoveOn's letter:
"Especially since this report has met CBS' standards for accuracy ...."
Is there really anything else needs be said?
(2) VI made the following comment | Sep 30, 2004 3:11:59 AM | Permalink
I guess I live in a cave or something, but I don't know what fisking is.
(3) Beldar made the following comment | Sep 30, 2004 6:17:40 AM | Permalink
"Fisking" (see also, e.g., here, here, here, and here) is the blogospheric practice of ruthlessly critiquing someone's written work, usually on a paragraph by paragraph, line by line, or even phrase by phrase basis. It's best done by juxtaposing snippets of the target's work with one's own snarky comments, or, better still, link-filled factual and/or logical rebuttals.
The name derives from British "journalist" Robert Fisk, whose reporting, especially from war zones, has shown consistent liberal bias and gross, oftentimes hilarious, factual inaccuracies. Its widespread acceptance is suggested by the fact that it is now frequently used without a capital letter. Based upon such a short, unusual, and easily spelled name, the verbified form "fisking" trips off both the tongue and the keyboard so much more easily than, say, "Kristoffing."
(4) MaDr made the following comment | Sep 30, 2004 9:48:12 AM | Permalink
If memory serves, the Brits didn't even use the forged documents as a basis for their assessment.
My guess is that CBS decided not to run this piece, when someone pointed out that it might actually hurt Kerry: 1) resurrecting once Kerry advisor Wilson (and why he's gone), and 2) bringing Kerry's favorite ally's (France) role in this scandal to light (not in their piece but from their competitors).
(5) Robert Crawford made the following comment | Sep 30, 2004 10:07:26 AM | Permalink
"Fisking" also refers to the incident in which Fisk was beaten up and nearly robbed by a Pakistani mob, and act which he heartily blamed on the West in general and the US in particular.
(6) tom scott made the following comment | Sep 30, 2004 11:03:16 AM | Permalink
In addition to Fisk being beaten he also had this comment.
"If I were them, I'd have
beaten me too."
For a photo see LGF here
Scroll down to Idiotarian of the year post. I think this fits the bill of Beldar's comment of "oftentimes hilarious."
(7) Al made the following comment | Sep 30, 2004 2:32:07 PM | Permalink
MrDA, I doubt that _that_ would have made it into the report. "Forged by an Italian" -> positively in the report.
"Forged by an Italian in the pay of French Intelligence" -> Not a chance. "Edited for length."
(8) Sharpshooter made the following comment | Oct 1, 2004 4:03:28 AM | Permalink
Say...what ever happended to Joe Wilson and his world-class GAFFE? And while we're on it, what's with the Sandy Berger fiasco?
Boy did those two stories drop under the radar quickly when RatherGate broke open. Coincidence?
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