New York Times to use the word 'torture' when describing torture

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Under pressure from reporters and editors, the New York Times’ leadership has decided to use the word “torture” with regard to the CIA’s treatment of prisoners in the years following September 11.

Executive editor Dean Baquet published a statement on Thursday announcing the change in style, explaining that since we now know many more details of the CIA’s methods over the past decade – including waterboarding, sleep deprivation and caging prisoners in a box – the “plain-English” meaning of “torture” now outweighs the “specialized legal meaning” of the word.

The Times described what we knew of the program but avoided a label that was still in dispute, instead using terms like harsh or brutal interrogation methods.

But as we have covered the recent fight over the Senate report on the CIA’s interrogation program – which is expected to be the most definitive accounting of the program to date – reporters and editors have revisited the issue. Over time, the landscape has shifted.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/07/new-york-times-torture-in-style-update

[randys1]

1. A start, now if we could just arrest, indict and convict and imprison the W administration

[onecaliberal]

2. Yes we tortured people

Can we put those responsible in jail already.

[24601]

7. So what would you do for someone who ordered the drone strike on a US citizen? Is 'killing' as bad

as 'torture'?

[cosmicone]

8. Torture is far far worse than killing n/t

[onecaliberal]

11. I would investigate and prosecute

It would be up to a jury to meat out punishment. Both are abhorrent. The perpetrators of either offense should NOT be allowed to be free.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. False equivalency,..you can't compare a military strike to torturing a prisoner....

Be it a drone, a GBU or a Hellfire from an F-15 or a Tomahawk from a ship hundreds of miles away.

You have a legal requirement to care for prisoners and they have no obligation to provide any information other than name, rank and serial number whether if they are part of an enemy military force or not.

The sad fact is, the reason Bush/Cheney tortured these people was to get them to falsely claim there was a connection between Saddam and al Qaeda and ultimately to 9/11 and to WMDs when there was none.

They tortured cab drivers and goat herders. There was a tape seen by members of congress that has never been released of the sodomizing of a little boy to get his parents to talk. The audio of his screams are described as the worse part. But Democrats decided to let it all go and to "move on" because the important thing is to make sure Dubya gets to be one of the boys at the Old Presidents Club.

AKA, the Fletcher Memorial Home.

[JoeyT]

19. Stop being sanctimonious.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. The NYT is "on it".

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended for graduating from the University of No Shit Sherlock.

Thanks for the thread, alp.

[countryjake]

9. Ha!

[bvf]

14. Apparently the UNSS has a ten-year degree program.

And yes, thanks for the thread! I'm sure there won't be a lot more mention of this in the MSM. If anybody covers it further, it'll be Stewart or Colbert.

Can we put some people on trial already?

[rustbeltvoice]

5. use of language: describe or obscure

Air Force Colonel David Opfer was upset about the reporting on the war he was involved in, and he complained, "You always write it's bombing, bombing, bombing. It's not bombing, it's air support".

[Babel_17]

6. I applaude their foray into using "enhanced elucidation" (nt)

[Baitball Blogger]

10. The demilitarizing of the news media is a positive first step.

[Dustlawyer]

12. So when Dick Cheney says "enhanced interrogation" the Times will say "Torture?"

[christx30]

13. To keep up the accuracy

Dick Cheney will hereby be known as Darth Vader. We will no longer use the name ironically.

[bvf]

15. I'd love to see Cheney address this decision in the pages of the NYT. <eom>

[Dustlawyer]

21. Too right!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. "a label that was still in dispute"

From torturers and their defenders.

[ReRe]

17. Well, well, well...

The Times moves.

[LuckyLib]

20. An Onion headline if there ever was one.

[Javaman]

22. Gasp! you mean the NYT actually did their jobs and stopped being a water carrier for war?

Judith Miller and all.

Times only changed when the "management" was pressured into changing.

Perhaps we can now pressure them into writing an investigating report into the crimes committed by chimpy mcmonkey pants*.

Okay okay, I over stepped reality there.