www.refuseandresist.org/newrepression/110501torture.html
Torture Seeps Into Discussion by News Media NY Times - 11/5/01 In many quarters, the Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter is considered a liberal. Yet there he was last week, raising this question: "In this autumn of anger," he wrote, "even a liberal can find his thoughts turning to . Alter is just one of a growing number of voices in the mainstream news media raising, if not necessarily agreeing with, the idea of torturing terrorism suspects or detainees who refuse to talk. On Thursday night, on the Fox News Channel, the anchor Shepard Smith introduced a segment asking, "Should law enforcement be allowed to do anything, even terrible things, to make suspects spill the beans? And under certain circumstances, it may be the lesser of two evils. Some human rights advocates say they do not mind theoretical discussions about torture, as long as disapproval is expressed at the end. But they say that weighing the issue as a real possible course of action could begin the process of legitimizing a barbaric form of interrogation. But some said last week they were duty-bound to address it when suspects and detainees who have refused to talk could have information that could save thousands of lives. Plus, they added, torture is already a topic of discussion in bars, on commuter trains, and at dinner tables. Alter said he was surprised that his column did not provoke a significant flood of e-mail messages or letters. Alter was advocating it, which he said he was not doing, as evident in his point about torture producing false information. Shine, however, said he was amazed that it was a subject for a news report at all. But where Fox News Channel was willing to run a traditional, network- news style segment on the pros and cons of torture and "suspending writ of habeas corpus," the broadcast news divisions have shied away from doing the same. Jim Murphy, the executive producer of "Evening News with Dan Rather" on CBS, said he would address the topic only if a CBS News correspondent found that law enforcement was seriously considering using torture. He said that speculation about torture and discussion of its merits were, for now, best left to talk shows and columnists. And yet, even their leaders said they understood the source of the sentiments. Roth said he had appeared on CNN and Fox News Channel to discuss those reasons, chief among them that torture often produces false information and that various international laws forbid it. Roth and the deputy executive director of Amnesty International USA, Curt Goering, said they believed that if the discussion of torture grew, they would be able to counter it on television or in print.
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