"Fisking" Definition Of

fisking: n.
[blogosphere; very common] A point-by-point refutation of a blog entry or (especially) news story. A really stylish fisking is witty, logical, sarcastic and ruthlessly factual; flaming or handwaving is considered poor form. Named after Robert Fisk, a British journalist who was a frequent (and deserving) early target of such treatment. See also MiSTing, anti-idiotarianism

Fisk

Fisk verb. To deconstruct an article on a point by point basis in a highly critical manner. Derived from the name of journalist Robert Fisk, a frequent target of such critical articles in the blogosphere (qv).
Usage: "Orrin Judd did a severe fisking of an idiotic article in the New York Times today..."

Before I started this BLOG, I used to torment people with emails in which I offered my opinion and commentary, often interspersing said opinion and commentary into the body of works by other authors. I have discovered that this process is called fisking.

Apparently, one Mr. Robert Fisk of the Independent had his knickers in quite a twist while reporting from Bahgdad during the early days of Gulf War Two. He seems to have been expecting a much different outcome than what actually happened. Of course BLOGgers were letting him have it with both barrels, rhetorically speaking of course.

I don't claim to be reformed, so the "fisking" will continue here rather than in my friends emails and they can peruse or not at their discretion. I never knew this had a title. In the future I will do better about keeping up and henceforth all "fisking", friendly and hostile, will be properly acknowledged. -SpinDaddy

Definition reference 1
To fisk or not to fisk?
-->To fisk or not to fisk?
[-->Posted 4:31 PM by Roger Kimball]
In this week's Spectator, David Pryce-Jones explains the ins and outs of a new contribution to the English language--and journalistic perfidy:
In the www arena where the world speaks invisibly to itself, a new word has appeared: ‘fisking’, meaning the selection of evidence solely in order to bolster preconceptions and prejudices. Just as cardigans or mackintoshes are named after an inventive individual, so fisking derives from the work of Robert Fisk, the Middle East correspondent of the Independent, stationed these many years in Beirut. The catalogue of mendacious absurdity that Mr. Pryce-Jones catalogues is as impressive as it is depressing.

From mid-March to the end of April this year, Fisk was in Baghdad. He took proper precautions to equip himself with flak jacket and gas mask, and to buy stores for the coming emergency, imparting reassuring news about his candles, biscuits and 25 loo rolls. He further informed us that he was reading a biography of Sir Thomas More, a man so self-righteous that he went to the stake for it. The implicit comparison was not lost.

And then, on 19 March, the Americans began ‘acting out their rage’. Just five days later, he was quoting an Iraqi general already speaking of quagmire. For Fisk, ‘Things are going wrong. We are not telling the truth. The Iraqis are riding high.’ Cruise missiles were falling in all the wrong places. On 1 April he was wondering ‘Where, for heaven’s sake, is all this going?’ The siege of Baghdad would need a quarter of a million men, and it was ‘fading from the diary’. Next day he was even more distraught. The Iraqi army was prepared to defend its capital. ‘How, I kept asking myself, could the Americans batter their way through these defences?’ It was an amazing performance Fisk gave--and no doubt will continue to give. "Fisk seems to have left Baghdad for the present," Mr. Pryce-Jnes notes, "but no doubt he will return, or from a distance continue to corrupt the Independent with his hysteria and disinformation." Even Paul Krugman could learn a thing or two from Robert Fisk. Read all of Mr. Pryce-Jones's excellent article here.

Definition reference 2
November 13, 2003
Fisking The Definition?
Also from Armavirumque today...they reprint a definition of "fisking" that originally appeared here:
In the www arena where the world speaks invisibly to itself, a new word has appeared: ‘fisking’, meaning the selection of evidence solely in order to bolster preconceptions and prejudices. Just as cardigans or mackintoshes are named after an inventive individual, so fisking derives from the work of Robert Fisk, the Middle East correspondent of the Independent, stationed these many years in Beirut.
Well, not exactly. "Fisking," as used around the Blogosphere, actually refers to the practice of offering a point-by-point (and usually quite damning) rebuttal to an article or quote guilty of incorporating the evidence and reasoning described above. This is usually accomplished by offering the text being fisked bit by bit, with specific rebuttals after each part. Kind of like this post, actually...except the criticism involved in fisking is usually quite a bit more harsh.Posted by Bobby Allison-Gallimore at November 13, 2003 10:59 PM