Fisking Baghdad Bob's new book

If you're thinking of buying and reading Robert Fisk's new book The Great War for Civilisation -- well, you shouldn't be reading this blog for a start; we like to deal with facts here -- but if you are intent on getting hold of it, then you might be interested in this recent review of Baghdad Bob's 1,300 pages of utter nonsense. Here's a taste:

First there is the problem of simple accuracy. It is difficult to turn a page of The Great War for Civilisation without encountering some basic error. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, not, as Fisk has it, in Jerusalem... The deeper problem with Fisk’s work is not the sort of thing that can be fixed by acquiring a better research assistant or fact-checking apparatus. Facts must be placed in their proper context, after all, and this demands a degree of good faith that Fisk utterly lacks...

The precise angle of his tilt has been confirmed by Osama bin Laden himself, who, in a videotaped message on the eve of the 2004 presidential election in the U.S., commended Fisk by name for his incisive and “neutral” reporting. On Planet Fisk, there are bad guys and there are victims, and the victims—the Arabs—can do no wrong, at least none for which they are ultimately responsible. Thus, one comes away from his current book hardly realizing that Lebanon was under a repressive Syrian occupation for most of the 30 years that Fisk has made his home there.

Ouch. Read the full review here. Two more here, from The Herald.

Linked Reviews: 'Baghdad Bob' - Commentary magazine
'Mixed reviews for Robert Fisk's The Great War for Civilisation' - Herald