A new term for 'fisking'
Ezra kindly links to a post of mine, but beseeches:
I thought the word "fisking" had died. Can we please not bring it back? Not only is it ugly and vaguely obscene, but it smears a real journalist who's spent decades putting himself in the sort of danger that the brave warbloggers who courageously insert snarky comments between blockquotes can't even imagine.
All true. Though it occurs to me that we in this medium use ugly fake words all the time. "Blog", "vlog", and "diavlog" all come to mind. Basically we're trampling the language as it is, so I don't see why it's a major aesthetic problem to use the word "fisking", which at least brings with it some pretty gnarley imagery. But I'm not opposed to, out of deference to Robert Fisk, adopting a new term...it's just that I'm having a hard time coming up with one. Ergo, a competition! My entry, taken from Ezra, will be the meta-term "critiquing by inserting snarky comments between blockquotes", as in "I gave Jonah Goldberg a good critiquing by inserting snarky comments between his blockquotes." Winner gets an email of congratulations from me, and, perhaps, a note on a Wikipedia page a few years down the line if this ever catches on.
Comments
Maybe Ezra is just having a case of 'the Thursdays'.
There seems little doubt that the technique of line by line or para by para discussion/debunking (preferably correcting factual errors or omissions) of someone's written material, is in fact a often useful and used approach on blogs. It deserves a name, I'd argue.
Although Ezra seems to like Fisk as a reporter, others do not for a variety of similar reasons.
Whether 'fisking' sounds vaguely obscene is another matter. Judgements may vary.
So, I response to your search for another word, I submit 'fisking'. How a word sounds doesn't seem like the reason for finding a new one, and Fisk the person apparently has committed repeated sins of factual accuracy.
The device invented (?) by Thomas Crapper may not have deserved his name, and given the sensitivity of the topic in those times, replacing it with toilet really didn't add much clarity (or the even vaguer 'bathroom' or 'mens/ladies' room.)
Sometimes a work works and it sticks.
But I wouldn't like to see the word/concept of fisking carried too far. Moderation in all things, you know.
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