Why Isn’t the Mainstream Media Honest about US Torture?

The post Why Isn’t the Mainstream Media Honest about US Torture? appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.

On Monday, August 7, The Washington Post ran a story with the headline Judge orders CIA interrogation lawsuit to trial. It details the upcoming civil trial of two CIA-contract psychologists who were paid $81 million to design and implement the CIA program that became ubiquitously referred to as “enhanced interrogation.” The story itself was interesting and informative on a number of points. But what was perhaps less noticeable was the way the author tiptoed around actually referring to it as a torture program — except when referencing the plaintiff’s accusations.

In 2017, with two presidential administrations between today and the program’s inception, why is it so difficult to use plain and straightforward language — that this was torture and a violation of international law?

“Enhanced” sounds like a product update, hardly pejorative. Yet the article does use clear language to describe the actual methods used: “stuffing detainees into small boxes, slamming them against walls and waterboarding them.”   

Related front page panorama photo credit: Adapted by WhoWhatWhy from  waterboarding (Mike Licht / Flickr – CC BY 2.0).