Fabricator and fraud

THE LATE ROBERT FISK was as close to a celebrity as it is possible to get for a foreign correspondent. I vividly remember the moment I met him after a lecture in Beirut in 2010: for a young journalist in the first few months of my career, it was almost like meeting David Beckham. I also remember the words he said during that lecture: “The Middle East is not a football match. It’s a bloody tragedy, and the journalists have a responsibility to be on the side of those who suffer.”

It’s an analogy I have used many times in my own life. Robert Fisk, who worked as a foreign correspondent first for and since 1989 for, had the most influence of any journalist on my career. But it wasn’t because of his charismatic speech in 2010, or because of the many articles I had read that had influenced my understanding of the Middle East as a student.