Mancow Waterboarding Called Into Question

Miami Herald:

I dunno, maybe actual NBC reporters don't want to come on Keith Olbermann's show since he took to bellowing insults at them on the air while anchoring the network's coverage of the Republican convention last year. Whatever the reason, he's now apparently resorted to faking stories. The media-news site Gawker has been reporting for two days that the video of waterboarding you can see up above was faked. And, Gawker adds (though, it should be noted, without attribution), Olbermann knew it.

Read the whole story: Miami Herald

Comments

[NotYouAgain]

So, it isn't waterboarding unless it meets certain prescribed exacting standards, like the angle of incidence and the fact that the person administering the water is a trained professional.

Or is it that it isn't torture if it isn't done by a professional or it is torture only if it's done by a professional?

Or that if only a handful of time passed from the beginning of this it couldn't have been torture and panic attacks are not mentally torture?

What a bunch of lame excuses. Mancow went in with an attitude that this would be easy and discovered to his fearful amazement that it wasn't and was very scary. Not to mention that he had health repercusions for the next several days. Doesn't sound like a lark to me.

[BlackDemfromNH]

So much of this story just doesn't add up. Why in the world would Mancow fake this and make it look like he was wrong about water boarding? That just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And why would the guy did the water boarding admit to it publicly? What would be the point? And how come NONE of these sources can be confirmed or will go on the record? It's all hearsay. Be careful of what is called "news" and do some fact checking of your own when reading these kinds of articles. This one just doesn't pass the smell test AT ALL!

[Disuberence]

Something doesn't add up here. Why would Mancow and Olbermann ever conspire together? This smells like another Madrasah and terrorist fist bump thing.

[Ohsherri]

Hoax or no Hoax....it was still unbearable!

So it get worse?....That's awful.
Mancow clearly couldn't even handle "hoaxy waterboarding"..(if it was a hoax)

So Hannity...show us the REAL way...cause it must be even worse than what Mancow got.

[ImaSpeakonit]

So wait a minute! Let me see if I've got this right.

Gawker, whatever that is, thinks that Mancow, a conservative shock jock, whose position prior to the taping was that waterboarding was not torture, faked his demonstration of waterboarding which ended with him acknowledging that it is indeed torture. Thereby, disproving his own theory, did so for the sake of Keith Olbermann?

Yeah, ok!

[Ohsherri]

Ya...because y'know...he's all about Keith.

[chitown8]

Right and Hannity is the hero?

It doesn't make sense.

[CynAnne]

Watching the encore interview of Mancow on "Countdown"right now, and he's SO angry (with good reason) about having his traumatic (IMO) experience dismissed by the gossipy Gawker sycophants - Keith and he are both amazed at the amount of common ground they've found. Bravo Eric and Keith..! ;) ...

[rabiddog6708]

The author of this article needs to adjust his tinfoil hat.

[mauibob]

I do not know about Mancow, but I visit TV Newser everyday to see the ratings for all the major political shows and Olbermann's have been tanking since the inauguration. This was obviously a stunt to get his, and maybe Mancows, ratings up. Olbermann show is still pretty much Bush,O'reilly bashing every night and people get tired of it. And as a good liberal he believes the ends justify the means. It is OK to lie because getting his ratings up is for the good of the country. Worst person today is Olbermann.

[nomobull]

link since you think it's fake give it a try. i bet you wouldn't last six seconds. and your desperation is showing.

[mauibob]

I don't need to. I have water poured on my face everyday. It's called a shower.

[Choicelady]

Mancow did this on his own for WLS radio in Chicago - Olbermann just interviewed him after the fact. Mancow said it was NOT torture - until he did it and found out how horrid it is. (Even when he could stop it which victims of torture cannot.) Olbermann had nothing at all to do with Mancow's attempt to prove it was NOT torture. So where is the "conspiracy" and how in the world did you come to this bizarre conclusion?

[KayJay90]

I just had a look at the story by Gawker, AND the follow-up commentary by Keith Olbermann AND his follow-up interview of Erich Muller.

I think Keith Olbermann is right -- the tinfoil hat guys are now billing themselves as "investigative reporters" for Gawker.

The Mancow waterboarding stunt was just that, a stunt to demonstrate how even a few seconds of wannabe waterboarding is nearly unbearable, and Mancow himself reiterates that what the detainees had to endure was far FAR worse.

Right wing denial is descending into the depths of insanity.

[talkitreal]

Navy Seal, Jesse Ventura says that it is torture! That is all I need to know!

Waterboarding has been acknowledged as being torture, since the Spanish Inquisition in 1478.
During World War II Japanese troops, and the German secret police, used waterboarding as a method of torture.

The USA even executed a Japanese soldier who had waterboarded an American soldier named - Chase J. Nielsen, one of the U.S. airmen who flew in the Doolittle raid following the attack on Pearl Harbor. At their trial for war crimes following the war, he (Chase Nielsen) testified "Well, I was put on my back on the floor with my arms and legs stretched out, one guard holding each limb. The towel was wrapped around my face and put across my face and water poured on. They poured water on this towel until I was almost unconscious from strangulation, then they would let up until I'd get my breath, then they'd start over again… I felt more or less like I was drowning, just gasping between life and death."

- Waterboarding is considered to be torture by a wide range of authorities, including war veterans, intelligence officials, and military judges.

* WATCH THE WATERBOARDING DONE to CORRESPONDENT KAJ LARSON - HERE:

http://current.com/items/76347282_getting-waterboarded.htm


* ALSO READ ABOUT KAJ'S EXPRIENCE AS HE SHARED IT on HUFFINGTON POST IN 2007, after the WATERBOARDING EXPERIENCE ON CURRENT TV.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kaj-larson/a-lesson-for-mukasey-why-_b_70651.html

[AllenD]

Someday, they may be a cure for rightardedness.

[Sheila Williams]

Lawd, these people are idiot. This guy is beyond being a idiot. Why would Mancow fake something that would help Keith Olbermann, they hate him. This just goes to show just how crazy the Republicans and conservatives are.

[noaxe397]

But wait a minute. How can anyone claim Mancow's WBing was fake? After all, all we hear from conservatives is that all WBing involves is placing a wet rag on a guys face; a little water up the nose. No big deal. Now, suddenly, we go all Marquis of Queensbury and there are rules, procedures and techniques that must be followed to the letter or it isn't WBing?

Conservatives: When they don't like the answer, change the question.

[jan4insight]

No sh*t

[tsand19151]

I feel a "worst person in the world" coming for Mr. Garvin. Hehehe.

[goodog]

If you read carefully, you'll notice one stray comment in an email has been teased into a big story not really supported by a comment quoted out of context.

I wouldn't put it past Mancow to stage a prank, but I also wouldn't put it past Cheney cronies desperate steps to discredit Mancow's story.

The author's agenda against Olbermann is obvious, so it's hard to tell who's really telling the truth, and that may be just the way anyone of these characters wants it.

Muddying the waters has always been the Bush administration's tactics for getting away with torture.

[Budokan]

Ratpigs have to question the legitimacy of this, else how can they explain one of their own who openly refutes their talking points?