A study (4/10) by Harvard students discovered that waterboarding was commonly called torture by major newspapers–right until the United States was found to be practicing it. The study looked at coverage in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal.
As Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald put it, “We don’t need a state-run media because our media outlets volunteer for the task:Once theU.S. government decrees that a technique is no longer torture, U.S. media outlets dutifully cease using the term.”
The Harvard researchhas been widely discussed, which is certainly a good thing. Michael Calderone at Yahoo! has even managed to get the Times to respond, with a spokesperson for the paper saying thatthe Times “has written so much about the waterboarding issue that we believe the Kennedy School study is misleading.” Whatever that means.
It’s important to note for the record that the Times was called out on this in real time by FAIR. After one of the first major Times pieces addressing U.S. torture practices (5/13/04), we issued the Action Alert “‘Harsh Methods’ Aren’t Torture, Says the New York Times,” which pointed out:
The May 13 article, headlined “Harsh CIA Methods Cited in Top Qaeda Interrogation,” described “coercive interrogation methods” endorsed by the CIA and the Justice Department, including hooding, food and light deprivation, withholding medications, and “a technique known as ‘water boarding,’ in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown.”
The article took pains to explain why, according to U.S. officials, such techniques do not constitute torture: “Defenders of the operation said the methods stopped short of torture, did not violate American anti-torture statutes and were necessary to fight a war against a nebulous enemy whose strength and intentions could only be gleaned by extracting information from often uncooperative detainees.”
The Times actually responded, with public editor Daniel Okrent more or less in agreement with FAIR’s position. When he asked Times editor Craig Whitney about the failure to call torture “torture,” he replied, “Now that you tell me people are reading things into our not using ‘torture’ in headlines, I’ll pay closer attention.”
FAIR also pointed out in its response to the Times that the failure to use the term torture was only part of the problem:
And FAIR’s complaint was not simply that the Times did not use the word ”torture” describe these interrogation methods (such as prolonged submersion), but that it quoted without rebuttal administration assertions that this was not torture, and seemed to echo these assertions in the reporters’ own voice.
FAIR’s magazine Extra! pointed out (5-6/08) that the term “waterboarding” seemed to come into play only in order to find an appropriate euphemism for what papers previously called “torture”:
Indeed, a search of newspaper archives reveals that until May 2004, the term had actually meant an aquatic sport similar to surfing. Meanwhile, the technique now known as “waterboarding”–in which the person being tortured is actually drowning, aspirating fluid to the point of being unable to breathe–had previously been called “water torture,” or simply “torture,” by the media.
I would love to see sites like FAIR give a brief tutorial on the basics of content analysis. It’s an incredibly helpful tool for the citizen journalist. We shouldn’t have to wait for Harvard to do this. Anyone can get these results with a fair amount of free time. Thanks for the post, keep up the good work!
It is torture.Anyone who says its not has an agenda.If it must be used(in the case of lets make believe ,a nuclear bomb in NY)than the president must order it.It should be filmed for later dissemination by we the people.No deniability buffers.His call.His to be held accountable.
As far as the press…i would say most have always said it was torture.I have not seen much confusion there.Sean Hannity for one has been notably wrong on this point.
Saying “if it must be used…” misses the point that experts agree that torture is an unreliable way of getting information. One reason for waterboarding KSM so many times was that the torturers were hoping to wrest from him a nugget now and a nugget again, so they could stitch them together in some kind of coherent narrative. But the fact is, the man had already boasted of his role in atrocities. No torture was needed to get that untainted evidence.
Fox’s 24 was relished by the American right wing (ARW). Jack Bauer was a real man!
ARW even ran a symposium on the show, covered by C-SPAN. The panel included right-wing talks sho hosts, and was moderated by Rush Limbaugh. Enough said/
No, not enough. Torture works to make people scream and soil themselves. It works to degrade them and to intimidate and degrade their societies. It works to elicit false confessions, as the KGB and the Gestapo well knew. Thank you W for ushering us into such company.
I agree with most of what you say Des,though probably not where your coming from.I think torture does work.Ask John McCain.All men break.Nazis,KGB,N Koreans all new this.It is a weak argument to say don’t torture because the results are not perfect.The argument is “Are we a people that will torture?If we become what we fight against,we are no better.Rush(who I have a huge amount of respect for)is simply wrong on this philosophical question.Because he refuses to be philosophical on this.He looks at the practical reality.As Bush did.As Chainy did.As the round table of leading Dem leaders did when they were completely briefed (and later lied about it).We were in a time of sudden attack and war.Decisions were made with the intent of safe gaurding American against a lethal foe.The reports seem to indicate(and the end of attacks during Bushes term seem to prove it)that our government did a good job protecting us.But still we as a people came up short.And now we must rethink who we as a people are.I believe we must end all torture.It is morally,ethically,spiritually,an abomination.History looks unkindly at any society that condones this.As I said if it is used….it must be totally open to later public scrutiny.And the president held personally responsible.We must be able to view the film if need be of those things done in our name by our elected officials.Let them stand before out judgement.Remember Obama,and Bush before him works for us.We must have that transparency and trust in our leaders.Obama promised this but it was a bold faced lie.To imagine that we now have a president who hides his past completely.Even to the point that his writings and educational records are sealed.A Fed that refuses to let us see what they are doing with our money.We as a people deserve better.
Michael e.
So Rush is a philosopher now?
No Dennis I said on this subject Rush is NOT philosophical.Rush seldom waxes philosophical as far as I can tell.It is not his shtick.I was recently looking at some of Rushes predictions about an Obama presidency made 2 years before election day.Rush was seeing the writing on the wall …and put together a prediction list of what Obamas time in office would look like.Not spin… but fact based hard cold numbers.At the time I thought he was overshooting by a country mile on that list of takeovers and mass destruction that would cripple the economy of this country.Now………Im starting to think he has a crystal ball.I cant find a prediction yet that was wrong.Give the devil his due.He is batting a 1000.
Torture, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. The US does it? Not torture! Israel does it? Not torture! Iran does it? Torture! Cuba does it? Torture! See how it goes? What’s good for the goose is most definetely not good for the gander and that is not just limited to torture but it also applies to terrorism, warmongering, theft, pillage, rape. The US is truly is place of double standars and hypocrisy. No wonder its people are so utterly screwed when nothing makes sense and up is down, in is out, war is peace, black is white.
Waterboarding is torture. Anyone who disagrees has their head in the sand, because they do not want to accept responsibility for it, or accept responsibility for condoning it. That is the epitome of a coward.