Robert Fisk appeared at Macquarie University last Friday night. It was the biggest event ever held on the campus with over 1200 people in attendance (the audio of the lecture is here.) People were being turned away. After securing Fisk, I never expected that such a rich diversity of people would come and hear the world’s foremost Middle East correspondent.
After the event, I exclusively interviewed Fisk on the failures of Western journalism and the spurious claims of anti-Semitism against individuals who dare challenge Israel. The interview is available here.
Thanks to any number of people for arranging the evening, especially Fourth Estate Radio for the audio skills and Macquarie University’s Centre for Middle East and North African Studies for supporting Fisk’s talk and understanding the necessity of airing and promoting an alternative reading of the Middle East and Western foreign policy in the region.
UPDATE: Machine Gun Keyboard has more on the Fisk event here, here and here.
“After securing Fisk, I never expected that such a rich diversity of people would come and hear the world’s foremost Middle East correspondent.”
That’s because it didn’t happen, but I’m sure that a diversity of people came to gawk at Fisk. They would have come to gawk at haswari. And Arafat.
The Fisk lecture was excellent. I saw him in Canberra, where the room was full beyond capacity with people. Again, the range of types of people present was quite large. There is obviously a great thirst for knowledge and independent voices on goings on in the Middle East.