{"id":350,"date":"2009-04-28T09:46:18","date_gmt":"2009-04-28T09:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp\/2009\/04\/t_is_for_torture_period_just_s\/"},"modified":"2009-04-28T09:46:18","modified_gmt":"2009-04-28T09:46:18","slug":"t_is_for_torture_period_just_s-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/t_is_for_torture_period_just_s-2.html","title":{"rendered":""T" Is For Torture. Period. Just Say It"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the big failings of traditional media is its fetishization of “objectivity” in the face of facts. At its best, objectivity is an attempt at fairness to present opposing views. But too often it reflexively reduces issues to non-sensical polarized he said\/she said arguments without the journalistic application of facts. If I say the sky is green, is it the reporter’s job to report the story by finding an opposing view that states the sky is blue? That would be stupid. Yet this is how many stories get reported, no matter how stupid they are. News organizations too often hide behind claims of “objectivity”. Recent reporting on torture in The New York Times<\/i> has angered many, and Clark Hoyt,  the Times public editor took up the issue<\/a> on Sunday. <\/p>\n

The choice of a single word involved separate deliberations in New York
\nand the Washington bureau and demonstrated the linguistic minefields
\nthat journalists navigate every day in the quest to describe the world
\naccurately and fairly. In a polarized atmosphere in which many
\nAmericans believe the nation betrayed its most fundamental ideals in
\nthe name of fighting terror and others believe extreme measures were
\nnecessary to save lives, The Times is displeasing some who think
\n“brutal” is just a timid euphemism for torture and their opponents who
\nthink “brutal” is too loaded.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At what point is torture to be called torture then? Greg Sargent calls out the Times<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\n

Seriously, why won’t the paper use the T-word? Times<\/i>
\nWashington editor Douglas Jehl told Hoyt that the current
\nadministration describes waterboarding as torture, but the Bush
\nadministration doesn’t. “On what basis should a newspaper render its
\nown verdict, short of charges being filed or a legal judgment
\nrendered?” Jehl asked.<\/p>\n

But the bottom line is that by not using the term, the paper is
\nrendering a verdict, too — in favor of the Bush administration. There’s
\na reason<\/i> the Bushies don’t call waterboarding torture: It
\nhappened on their watch, and calling it torture would be an admission
\nof guilt. Naturally, their official position is that they didn’t
\ntorture. By not describing the acts committed under Bush as “torture,”
\nthe paper is propping up the Bush argument. Period. <\/p>\n

That’s the paper’s own choice, but it might as well admit it,
\ninstead of imagining that there’s some kind of middle ground to stake
\nout here. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the big failings of traditional media is its fetishization of “objectivity” in the face of facts. At its best, objectivity is an attempt at fairness to present opposing views. But too often it reflexively reduces issues to non-sensical polarized he said\/she said arguments without the journalistic application of facts. If I say the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ePZm-5E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2006\/12\/doug_back_in_the_tree_house_fr.html","url_meta":{"origin":350,"position":0},"title":"Doug: Back In The Tree House (Friends and Critics)","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"December 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay - we're back online. Power has been restored here in Seattle (I understand as many as 1 million people had electrical outages). The tree that met the acquaintance with the back of our house was the most impressive tree in our neighborhood. It was more than 100 years old\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"tree.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/tree3web.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":42,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2006\/12\/john_insider-outsider.html","url_meta":{"origin":350,"position":1},"title":"John: insider-outsider","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"December 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Doug: Glad you're back in action. Are you back in your house? Is your bedroom still under siege? I must say, even without the Great Tree, your place looks beautiful. And look on the bright side (if there ever is a bright side in the skies of Seattle): now you'll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/creative_destruction_and_the_c.html","url_meta":{"origin":350,"position":2},"title":"Creative Destruction And The Critics","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"April 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A shameless plug for a piece on All Things Considered by Laura Sydell on what's happening with arts journalism as newspapers drop arts coverage. As I say in the piece, IMHO what's happening is not the destruction of arts journalism, but the reinvention of it. Arts journalism has often had\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/creative_destruction_and_the_c.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"criticsthumbs.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/criticsthumbs.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":38,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2006\/12\/john_a_misunderstanding_and_tw.html","url_meta":{"origin":350,"position":3},"title":"John: A Misunderstanding and Two Questions","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"December 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Doug: I think we're talking about different things with the word \"rules.\" I meant that for each individual, critic or otherwise, there should be no rigid, exclusionary standards that determine our positions about most anything. With conflicts of interest and objectivity, I meant by no rules that to take an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":934,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2016\/07\/editors-picks-five-stories-you-shouldnt-miss-factually-challenged-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":350,"position":4},"title":"Editor’s Picks: Five Stories You Shouldn’t Miss, Factually Challenged Edition","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"July 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This week: How did our culture get to the point we don't trust facts?... Are artists actually detrimental to neighborhoods?... Our notions of \"greatness\" need an overhaul... Europe's new cultural paradigm desperately needs artists... Are donors to museum building projects do their museums a disservice? Do Facts Matter Any More?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Weekly AJ Top Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Weekly AJ Top Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/weekly-aj-top-stories"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/5000.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/5000.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/5000.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/5000.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/5000.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2006\/12\/doug_generally_speaking_the_cr.html","url_meta":{"origin":350,"position":5},"title":"Doug: Generally Speaking (The Critic As Specialist)","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"December 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"John: Two huge topics to jump into, both probably worth spending a whole week on by themselves. I'll wait on answering the first till later, since it's such a huge topic. But the second, about specialist critics vs. generalists is easier to take a bite out of. I don't think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}