British journalist Robert Fisk has been living in and writing about the Middle East since the mid-"70s, and since 2003 has been covering the War in Iraq the hard way -- by making his way into the war zone, combing through the rubble of the battlefields and talking to soldiers and military leaders on both sides of the political divide. (Fisk is one of the only Western journalists to interview Osama bin Laden, who has spoken with Fisk on three different occasions.) Fisk is a man with very strong opinions about the nature of covering war, especially the way it"s been reported in recent years, and this CD release preserves a lecture from Fisk in which he talks about his experiences as a journalist, the political and practical realities of covering the violence in the Middle East, and the symbiotic relationship between war and the press. Fisk is a commanding and charismatic speaker who talks with a bold authority about his experiences and what they"ve taught him, and he maintains a sense of compassion as he speaks of the strange and often horrifying facts of modern warfare. This disc also features an interview with Fisk conducted by David Barsamain, which focuses on Lebanon in the wake of the then-recent murder of Rafik Hariri; this discussion is drier and less immediate than the lecture, but Fisk"s steely intelligence remains impressive. Fisk is the sort of committed and well-informed journalist who is becoming increasingly rare in the era of corporate media, and this is a thoughtful and absorbing look at the issues in the Middle East as well as the way they"ve been portrayed in the international press. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi