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STORY: On Monday, Beruit-based journalist, Robert Fisk made a brief stop in Austin.
Fisk is the Mid-East correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent and is widely regarded internationally as one of the very few authentic journalists reporting from the region. KPFT reporters Shannon Young and Mark Bedawi spoke with Mr. Fisk about the current state of journalism in the United States - particularly in the context of an impending war. Fisk: "Anyways, the so-called activism of the United States has a lot to answer for. It has never tried to spread beyond its own little academic groves. And it's nice little radio stations... and we all love Pacifica, so on and so forth. I know it's got a lot of listeners, but it tends to be fairly narrowly-defined. You know, putting pleasant music in is not actually going to broaden it to the degree that we probably need. I'm not giving a lecture on Pacifica, I'm not up for it... Bedawi: How would you broaden the coalition of people, or increase the influence... Fisk: By stop being so proud of being a minority. Start representing the majority, and you'll find you do. . .[chuckle] but you haven't been elected, so you're frightened to say that you speak for most people, so you end of saying we're just a small radio station, or we're just a small adversarial newspaper. An alternative newspaper means something that is given out at the supermarket -- it's rubbish." Mr. Fisk cited a major disconnect in the dialogue between journalists and everyday people, including the reservists who are most likely to be called to duty in the event of a U.S. invasion of Iraq. "There is a great deal of unwillingness of people that have a very comfortable job, and who live very privileged lives to actually go out and talk to people who don't. And that mirrors a sort of class war which the British had up until the 1960s-1970s, we still have a class society, but it isn't like that anymore. I'm very surprised, I mean, I knew some people do, and they have demonstrations and so on, but the dialogue in some ways should be between, you know, 'Do you want to do this?' I'm not a pro- or anti-war demonstrator or whatever. I mean, I'm against the war, but as a journalist. But, you seem to have a dislike of talking to soldiers. I don't know why. I always welcome them to my lectures, I want to talk to them. I'm not trying to persuade them to mutiny, I want to see if they understand what they're getting into, and if they understand what the historical background was. Do they realize that we created Saddam Hussein? They can deny it, or they can go look it up in the books, or they can come from the next lecture. But that's the way of trying to engage ordinary people, not just endless and endless interviews on, forgive me, Pacifica or anywhere else. I do a lot of interviews from Beirut, with various stations in the states. And without exception, they're all minorities [alternative media]. Actually I refuse to talk on CNN, I am sometimes asked, but I won't talk to them at all." In order to break out of the narrow academic niche to effectively communicate with the ordinary, everyday people, Fisk makes the following suggestion: "If you want to listen to mainstream radio, as you call it, it's these confrontational right-wing radio shows. So if you can produce something similar, but about serious issues, you'll start having ordinary listeners listening to you." On that note, please tune in tonight to "Arab Voices" from 10 to 11pm. Robert Fisk will be answering call-in questions from the listener audience. Shannon Young & Mark Bedawi, KPFT News, Houston
E-mail Shannon Young and Mark Bedawi at news@kpft.org
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