Torture and the Media Conspiracy (posted by DT)

I know "conspiracy" is a strong word, but I don't see how one can argue it any other way when it comes to the US media and its response to the US torture policies of recent years.

Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com writes

On Monday, I noted that this Associated Press article twice used the word "torture" to describe what the Chinese Government did to Xue Feng, an American geologist now convicted of obtaining China's "state secrets." AP used the word "torture" despite the fact that (a) the treatment to which the Chinese subjected him (a few cigarette burns on his arms) clearly does not meet the Bush/Cheney/John-Yoo definition of "torture," and (b) the Chinese Government vehemently denies that its treatment of prisoners rises to the level of "torture." I very satirically demanded that AP apologize to China and cease using the word "torture" to describe what it did in light of the prevailing American media standard as articulated by the NYT's Bill Keller, The Washington Post, and NPR: namely, that the word "torture" must not be used by Good Journalists (at least when it comes to the U.S. Government) if the abuse falls short of the Government's official definition and/or if the Government denies that what it does is "torture." That, explained our leading media mavens, would be "taking sides," and only Bad Journalists do that.

Now Greenwald's post goes on to talk about media transparency, but I'm interested in how it portrays torture (Greenwald is too of course). I've had lots of arguments with liberal as well as conservative friends and relatives about whether waterboarding is torture. I am shocked that it has now become the consensus in the US that pretty much anything goes when it comes to treatment of terrorism suspects, and I predict it won't be long before the same logic applies to plain old violent crime suspects too (I mean, hey, they're trying to kill Americans too, right?).

The next time you see a story about mistreatment of prisoners by other countries, just try this thought experiment: change the country from North Korea or Cuba or whatever to "United States". Would that change the tone of the story? Why? Do we get to brutally treat prisoners because we're "the good guys"? If Jack Bauer were doing his work for Iran, would we still be cheering him on?