This Is Not a Movie

Robert Fisk: I think that if you watch wars, and out here you do, the history in the Middle East, unfortunately, is largely about wars. The making of history, the construction of politics is done through violence. And I think you're watching history happen and you're telling people about it. And I think what happens is that you develop the idea that the old ideas of journalism that you've got to be neutral and take nobody's side, is rubbish. I think as a journalist you've got to be neutral and unbiased on the side of those who suffer. I'm a person writing this, I'm not an agency tap-tap-tapping away on a machine. People say, "Oh, you're letting off feelings." Why not? I'm the nerve ending. I'm not a machine. What I try to do when I'm writing, I try to talk to the reader, like someone they know. I'm trying to write as if I'm writing to a friend, "You won't believe what I've just seen". That's the key to getting people to understand what's going on.