Robert Fiske on RTE News today

Mabel

Anyone hear this? He was very tetchy I thought. Was very unco-operative to Sean O'Rourke! The subject was (of course) Israel, but Fiske seemed to prefer arguing with O'Rourke and bringing up the Armenian Genocide

IvyTheTerrible

Mabel wrote: »

Anyone hear this? He was very tetchy I thought. Was very unco-operative to Sean O'Rourke! The subject was (of course) Israel, but Fiske seemed to prefer arguing with O'Rourke and bringing up the Armenian Genocide

Fiske is notoriously tetchy in interviews, he was right on form today!

Barname

Fiske is an overrated boor

I never understood why RTE gave him so much airtime

I hope todays performance puts that practice under review.

JonathanAnon

Mabel wrote: »

The subject was (of course) Israel, but Fiske seemed to prefer arguing with O'Rourke and bringing up the Armenian Genocide

Yeah he started throwing questions back to Sean O'Rourke. Was kind of sarcastic / rude... No idea why he brought up the Armenian genocide in WWI or the Nazis in WWII, he was being asked directly about today's issues. Love O'Rourke though he didnt back down.

Sergeant

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Yeah he started throwing questions back to Sean O'Rourke. Was kind of sarcastic / rude... No idea why he brought up the Armenian genocide in WWI or the Nazis in WWII, he was being asked directly about today's issues. Love O'Rourke though he didnt back down.

Great performance by O'Rourke. Fisk gets wheeled out by RTE with monotonous regularity, the chap is becoming a broken record. Everyone knows his opinion, he rarely offers any new insight.

Al Jazeera have even started to cut back on his appearances. Hopefully the pen pushers out in Montrose will follow suit.

heybaby

I disagree, o rourke has previous form when it comes to aggressive interviewing techniques, his style is far too combative for my liking. Fisk is probably the wrong kind of interviewee for a 2 minute slot on the one oclock news, his knowledge of middle east politics and history is vast and he finds it difficult to reduce his ideas to a soundbite stock answer that o rourke is looking for. Perhaps a different correspondant in future would be a good idea, but also o rourke could be less tetchy and more respectful of his interviewees, i mean cutting fisk off mid sentence by calling him Bob was quite disrespectful I thought.

Big Tone

Fisk definitely needs more time to be interviewed as was evident from his excellent lengthy interviews with Eamon Dunphy on Today FM's The Last Word back in the late 90s/early 2000s

drunkcaveman

Ah Fisk was just a tool

CUCINA

I know it was a serious subject, but it did make entertaining listening, certainly raised my eyebrows.
Sean O Rourke calling him "Bob" also surprised me a bit; it seemed incongruous given the heated conversation between them.
Anyway, I Ithought the final score was SOR 2, RF 1

reprazant

O'Rourke asked Fisk why the Turkish relations with Israel had deteriorated recently so Fisk correctly stated that the main recent reason was that Israel has recognised the Armenian genocide as being a genocide. When he started to talk about what that was and why Turkey was so tetchy about it, O'Rourke cut him off and told him to keep on the subject.

To me, it seemed as if he O'Rourke asked a question, got an answer he didn't want and then told him to move on.

JonathanAnon

CUCINA wrote: »

Sean O Rourke calling him "Bob" also surprised me a bit; it seemed incongruous given the heated conversation between them.

I think Sean just lost the head when he saw the facetious, flippant way that Fisk was addressing the serious questions that he was asking. I'm sure RTE are paying Fisk for his contribution, and Fisk (trying to be a smart arse) just batted the questions back to O'Rourke. Whether he considered that the answers to the questions were obvious or not, he is being paid for his time and should answer the questions he is asked as professionally as he can.. He's a professional journailst, that's his job...

I cringe to think how Mary Wilson would have handled this interview.. O'Rourke tied the bandana around his head and fixed bayonet... good man..

FlutterinBantam

That Fisk geezer is so far up his own arse he can check his tonsils.

Totally biased commentator and as soon as I hear his rhetoric.*.Bang* !! off button is bruised.

RayM

Fisk is one of the best Middle East correspondents out there (which is why he's so reviled by those who seek to excuse Israel's every crime). However, he is the wrong person to invite onto a short five-minute segment of a news bulletin. Anyone who has ever read his books or seen him speak would know that he's not capable of condensing his thoughts, and doesn't "do" the kind of short, glib sound bites that such a programme requires. The editor of the News at One really should have known that already.

FlutterinBantam

Fiske should learn that a biased, partisan reporter soon loses credibility.

jacaranda

I've never understood why the Irish media put such faith in Fisk. He presumably gets well paid for his various contributions, but I can't stand his aura of the self satisfied smug know-it-all.

the Irish media do all tend to scramble for the same poeple and, for instance, that emergency medical doctor from Cork also now seems to appear on every news programme. Why don't I like him either? is it because he seems to revel in the role of "expert" and every programme rushes to get his views?

youcrazyjesus!

When you, a lot of you, learn to spell the man's name correctly you can start to criticise him.

<facepalm>