The Media And Torture: A Head(Case) Buried In The Sand
Torture: we are losing ourselves beyond redemption ... while the media continues its complicit, or incompetent, blinding of the majority of us to the lies, mendacity and barbarism which lead to the use of torture, mainly with its (criminal) silence on this grave matter.
Meanwhile, we have nary a mention of the *Real* Axis of Evil of our times (i.e. extraordinary rendition, indefinite detention, torture), in the current U.S. elections ...
Simple absentmindedness? I think not.
To whit:
That the White House authorised 'waterboarding' is disturbing. But that no one in mainstream US politics seems to care is worse.
by Andy Worthington
The revelation, in yesterday's Washington Post, that the Bush administration "issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaida suspects" will increase calls for the administration to be held to account for its actions.
It is unlikely, though, that this revelation will lead to significant activity, beyond adding more voices to grassroots impeachment campaigns in the United States - although it may lead to a strengthening of plans in various European countries to indict senior officials for war crimes. As law professor Scott Horton explained in June, the best that opponents of the regime can hope for is that the "Bush administration officials who pushed torture will need to be careful about their travel plans."
The problem for all parties concerned is that the administration itself still refuses to concede that it has engaged in torture, and is being allowed to get away with it in the two places where opposition could really count: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Rather than pursuing senior officials, house Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi declared that impeachment was "off the table" after the Democrats gained a majority in the House of Representatives two years ago. A month earlier, politicians had endorsed the executive's attempts to shield itself and its employees from any liability for their actions by passing the Military Commissions Act, parts of which were clearly intended to exempt US officials from being prosecuted for war crimes.
Freed from direct challenges, the administration has, instead, attempted to stifle all mention of torture in its dealings with prisoners seized in the "war on terror".
(Keep reading ...)
Over the past 10 yrs we have seen a lack of independence from the MSM, while bloggers have picked up a lot of investigative reporting that once within the purview of that media. Corporations, few in number now control many news outlets and there is as a result a dirth of fresh perspective and responsibility. It's all about the money honey and as Faux noise has shown us it is easier to drop acid and report that trip then take an actual trip to Iraq, Afghanistan or where ever. Cheaper too. But the real lose is the narrowing of controling interests. Competition becomes secondary to the cost cutting, and the citizenry seems to have lost it's demand for actual reporting unless it involves Justin Haywood or Paris Hylton, or a Nancy Grace style of sensationalistic real time interrogation with hastily drawn conclusions.
ReplyDeleteC: you nailed the diagnosis ...
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