“Fisking” is something you hear a lot in the blogosphere. I didn’t know it’s formal root but understood it well enough. But over lunch today I had to explain it, and only then did I realize that I really didn’t know what it meant. Fortunately, wikipedia came to my aid.

Fisking, or to Fisk, refers to the act of critiquing, often in minute detail, an article, essay, argument, etc. with the intent of challenging its conclusion or theses by highlighting logical fallacies and incorrect facts. The practice was named after British journalist Robert Fisk after he issued a dispatch from Pakistan describing his savage beating at the hands of Afghan refugees… Blogger Andrew Sullivan considered Fisk’s story to be suspect and wrote a detailed analysis and critique. The term “fisking” first appeared on either Instapundit or Andrew Sullivan’s weblog.

The original article is indeed classic Fisk: “My beating by refugees is a symbol of the hatred and fury of this filthy war.” And Sullivan’s brief critique (it wasn’t that detailed) is worth the read.

As an aside, I personally think “Fisking” should be called “the Roentsch rebuttal.” Check out Dan Roentsch’s piece here (“Your Name Not Required”) to see what I mean.

• BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
• « Entrepreneurs in Japan
• » The War Ended?