Because, you know, Bush is a fascist.

Can we talk about what compromises torture? When I hear the word, I think of a dank cell, a sweaty, weaselly man with a short cigarette tending to battery cables, and a wretched soul strapped to a table while someone else gets busy with a pair of pliers. Usually, these scenarios don’t end with the subject being able to walk back to his cell under his own power.

I don’t condone that.

Now how about waterboarding? The subject is strapped to a board, inclined with their head lower than their feet, and then a cloth or cellophane is placed over the mouth and nose for short durations. Water is then poured over the covering. While little to no water is entering the airway, the brain mis-reads the situation and triggers a drowning reflex. The subject is then permitted to breathe before any damage is done (if conducted properly). Repeat as needed.

According to ABC News, CIA trainees last an average of 14 seconds before giving in. Khalid Mohammed gave up the mass airline bombing plot after a two minute session on the board.

Some say that ‘torture’ will prompt the prisoner to lie, or say anything to end the practice. Note that Khalid gave up the details on a real plot.

Is this really so bad? Information is extracted, lives are saved, and the prisoner walks back to the cell with little to no physical harm. I’m having a hard time finding a real problem with this.

That being said, I should offer some caveats before I get gang-piled by the opposition. I do not support the practice against American citizens. The Constitution and Bill of Rights do not permit this sort of action against persons covered by those documents i.e. American Citizens. I do not support this practice against uniformed soldiers of signatory nations to the Geneva Conventions. Nations that observe the Convention and attire their soldiers in clearly identifiable uniforms on the battle field have a valid expectation that their personnel will be treated within the dictates of the Convention. We would expect the same.

A nation-less, non-uniformed, murderous thug intent on killing civilians in large numbers does not qualify for protection. In fact, extending protections to them simply encourages them to continue, since they can be assured that capture isn’t all that unpleasant. Why make your murderous job harder by donning a uniform and fighting openly when there is little consequence in violating the ‘Laws of Warfare’?

If the technique can be shown to extract important information without resulting in the permanent harm to the subject, I’m not all that troubled by it.

I invite disagreement, but can we limit the conversation to things I’ve endorsed? I think it’s safe to assume that no one wants to see us employ ‘Vlad the Impaler’ techniques.

Except for maybe Bush. Because he’s evil. And he enjoys it.

AP is running a story stating 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the war.

My ire is directed at crap like this being reported as if it were fact. Does anyone seriously believe 2.5% of the population of Iraq has been killed by action directly related to the war, as the study contends? Have their been 770 war related deaths EVERY DAY since the invasion in early 2003?

Furthermore, the center that released this study released another study just prior to the 2004 election, claiming 100,000 war related deaths by November of 2004. So in two years, they come back and tack on another half-million?!

The work updates an earlier Johns Hopkins study — that one was released just before the November 2004 presidential election. At the time, the lead researcher, Les Roberts of Hopkins, said the timing was deliberate. Many of the same researchers were involved in the latest estimate.

At least he admits the timing was intended to coincide with the election. I guess since they didn’t get the result they wanted, they come back with a sixfold increase and try again.

An accurate count of Iraqi deaths has been difficult to obtain, but one respected group puts its rough estimate at closer to 50,000. And at least one expert was skeptical of the new findings.

“They’re almost certainly way too high,” said Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington. He criticized the way the estimate was derived and noted that the results were released shortly before the Nov. 7 elections in the United States.

“This is not analysis, this is politics,” Cordesman said.

And CNN takes the AP story and gives it a headline that suggests the number is fact – “655,000 Iraqis dead since invasion, study says”. How many normal people will glance at that, feel horrified, and move on, never taking the time to read the story. Suddenly, the number is embedded in culture, and you’ll hear it kicked around over casual coffee for the next year or so, as if it is fact.

This is so ultimately dishonest, I’m sick about it. Sure,the AP story provides the details, but those who are willing to dig into the text aren’t the people they are trying to influence here.

For comparison, as of this writing, Fox News hasn’t even mentioned the story on the front page. MSNBC – “Disputed study suggest higher Iraqi death toll”. Good for MSNBC! CBS News – “Study: 655,000 Iraqis Killed”. ABC News – “655,000 Iraqi Civilians Dead Because of War, Group Claims”. A little better, at least they say ‘claims’. BBC News – “Iraqi death toll ‘at 655,000′”. Geez, the Beeb just comes right out and elevates it to fact. I doubt those scare quotes will cut through the shock when a Tube rider glances at the paper in the coin box on his way to work.

Why can’t the media simply report in a way that doesn’t try to mislead? What is wrong with “Disputed study claims 655,000 Iraqi deaths since war”? There you go. You get the facts. If you want more, start reading.

The Republic depends on an informed electorate. The Media has a primal role in informing that electorate. It isn’t going to keep working if they are more interested in influencing power over reporting the facts.

Technorati Tags: iraq, deaths, study

Mistakes happen, and fortunately for Phillips, nothing horribly embarrassing occurred.

But how did CNN not notice the problem for so long? You’d think a Presidential speech qualifies as news; after all it is ON CNN…and CNN, as a news organization, might be expected to listen to the speech for anything notable to report…

I’m just sayin’….

Technorati Tags: cnn, embarrassment

Less than half of Americans believe the United States is now safer from terrorism than it was before September 11, 2001, according to a CNN poll released Wednesday.

Forty-three percent of 1,033 adults surveyed by Opinion Research Corporation said they think the country is safer now than it was before the 9/11 attacks. Thirty-two percent said they believe it is about as safe, while 25 percent said it is less safe.

By my math, that means seventy-five percent of polled Americans think the US is as safe or safer now than it was before 9/11. While we might debate the truth of that perspective, it still reveals quite a bit about how Americans are looking at the world.

So how did CNN format the headline?

Poll: 1 in 4 Americans believe U.S. was safer before 9/11

Seriously, what’s going on in American newsrooms?

Journalism has been taking a lot of hits lately. We’ve had the Reuters photojournalism scandal. We had Ra^thergate. Awhile back we had a Pew poll that revealed a serious erosion in public trust of the media. I personally can’t get through ten minutes of CNN without a dash to the bathroom to deposit my meal in the toilet.

The integrity of the media is essential in a free society. This is why the hint of bias on either side of the political spectrum bothers me. Sure, it is fun to watch Fox News after years of the other stuff, but at the end of the day, I can’t really trust anything completely. When Shephard Smith tells me something, I have to think about the slant and go check my facts.

I suppose scepticism is a good thing, but the vast majority of people (we call them voters) don’t have the time or energy, or even desire, to look beyond what they are being fed by the increasingly untrustworthy media.

And now we have things like this.

The Federal Communications Commission has mailed letters to the owners of 77 television stations inquiring about their use of video news releases, a type of programming critics refer to as “fake news.”

Video news releases are packaged news stories that usually employ actors to portray reporters who are paid by commercial or government groups.

The letters were sparked by allegations that television stations have been airing the videos as part of their news programs without telling viewers who paid for them.

Local television news is notorious for playing fast and loose in the name of ratings. I recall our first week watching the local news in Atlanta after moving down there. We were terrified of venturing into the city, convinced that armed gangs were killing at will all over the place. Local news is less about journalism and more about ratings.

And stunts like this aren’t helping things when it comes to regaining the public’s trust.

Journalism doesn’t seem to be about truth anymore. And the Republic suffers because of it.

I only hope the new media continues to develop and restore the fourth estate to its essential function.

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: But, here we have maybe 24 people who have lived in London and England and the free world for all these years that become citizens, subjects of the Crown, and yet, after having gotten to know us, they want to kill themselves to hurt us. Isn’t that an even deeper conundrum here than the chemicals being used in these attacks.

BRIAN WILLIAMS: And that, Chris, that last aspect, the willingness to take one’s own life. I always tell people there are guys on our team like that, too. They’re called Army Rangers and Navy Seals and the Special Forces folks and the first responders on 9/11 who went into those buildings knowing, by the way, they weren’t going to come out. So we have players like that on our team.

I wonder if at any point while uttering that, Williams had a little voice in his head suggesting he just stop right there. My money is on the prospect that he still doesn’t think it was a poorly worded comparison.

Because such even-handed comparisons are the hallmark of good journalism on the coasts.

]]> http://toddwiley.com/2006/08/11/wonder-if-brian-will-embed-anytime-soon/feed/ 1 http://toddwiley.com/2006/08/09/did-i-have-a-stroke/ http://toddwiley.com/2006/08/09/did-i-have-a-stroke/#comments Wed, 09 Aug 2006 00:37:31 +0000 Todd W http://toddwiley.com/all/the-failing-msm/did-i-have-a-stroke/ Seriously, am I laying on my bathroom floor with drool forming a pool under my cheek as my dying brain fantasizes some freakish world where the media is guiltier then my wildest suspicions of bias?

How did no one notice a guy walking around the rubble in one picture suddenly appearing as a ‘bomb victim‘ tangled in the wreckage?

Someone come over and give me some tPA.

]]> http://toddwiley.com/2006/08/09/did-i-have-a-stroke/feed/ 1 http://toddwiley.com/2006/08/08/this-is-getting-pathetic/ http://toddwiley.com/2006/08/08/this-is-getting-pathetic/#comments Tue, 08 Aug 2006 21:51:41 +0000 Todd W http://toddwiley.com/all/the-failing-msm/this-is-getting-pathetic/ Allah over at Hot Air is all over this one, but since it appears at the bottom of one of his posts, I decided to put the images here rather than just sending you on over.

I’m starting to believe that Adnan Hajj is not only faking photos, he’s trying to see how blatant he can be before getting caught.

Check out this cover of US News.

Fearsome jihadi with Israeli devestation behind him.  Lebanon burns in a hell unleashed by heartless Zionists.  Who took the photo?

Look familiar?

So what is on fire?  Hospitals, clinics, baby formula factories?

Tires!  It’s a dump.  On the cover of US News.

US News!

Exactly what are they doing in Journalism school these days?

Note – All photos shamelessly lifted from Hot Air and are used only to illustrate the ongoing collapse of the MSM.

]]> http://toddwiley.com/2006/08/08/this-is-getting-pathetic/feed/ 1 http://toddwiley.com/2006/08/08/professionals-take-this-seriously/ http://toddwiley.com/2006/08/08/professionals-take-this-seriously/#comments Tue, 08 Aug 2006 13:11:07 +0000 Todd W http://toddwiley.com/all/the-failing-msm/professionals-take-this-seriously/ I’m seeing some ‘so what’ posts bouncing around on the left regarding the Adnan Hajj photo scandal.  It is interesting to consider how important this topic is to photojournalism when the distortion of politics is not involved.

Charlotte Observer photographer Patrick Schneider has lost his job for manipulating the colors in a photo that appeared in Thursday’s newspaper.

…

“In the original photo, the sky in the photo was brownish-gray. Enhanced with photo-editing software, the sky became a deep red and the sun took on a more distinct halo,” the editor’s note says.

]]> http://toddwiley.com/2006/08/08/professionals-take-this-seriously/feed/ 0 http://toddwiley.com/2006/08/07/unluckiest-woman-in-lebanon/ http://toddwiley.com/2006/08/07/unluckiest-woman-in-lebanon/#comments Mon, 07 Aug 2006 16:03:10 +0000 Todd W http://toddwiley.com/all/the-failing-msm/unluckiest-woman-in-lebanon/ Heh^TM

]]> http://toddwiley.com/2006/08/07/unluckiest-woman-in-lebanon/feed/ 0