NPR Ombudsman Refuses To Speak To Glenn Greenwald About Torture

Bloggasm:

Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald has rarely been one to avoid responding directly to his right wing critics. He's been on Hugh Hewitt' radio show on multiple occasions and has even appeared on Michael Savage's show. As an opinionated pundit, he believes that people like him should be willing to face off with others in public forums that are not always friendly to their views, and he finds those that avoid doing so "cowardly and irresponsible."

Read the whole story: Bloggasm

Comments

[WyomingYouth]

I live in Wyoming and NPR is a major source for levelheaded, rational reporting amid the lunacy I deal with every day. I'm not saying it is perfect and it is not my only source for news and commentary, but it is head and shoulders above the most. What bothers me about this whole discussion here is the fact that anyone not agreeing with Mr. Greenwald is automatically considered wrong. I was under the impression that we progressives wanted to raise the tone of civil discourse in this country. I guess I was wrong.

P.S. I do consider water boarding to be torture I just think that this debate could be handled a bit more tactfully.

[Yermammy]

You're a progressive and I'm a nuclear physicist. Glenn's right and you are doing the typical mealy mushmouthed centrist bit of giving everyone a "fair" shake. No, she's wrong by using any other word for the heinous war crimes that were done, and that word is TORTURE. It's NOT an "enhanced interrogation technique because TORTURE is NOT an effective interrogation and it never has been. Torture is used for false confessions.

P.S.- Glenn tried, but this coward wouldn't accept an interview.

[Alcove-One]

" progressives " = lefty

[Yermammy]

You got a problem wid dat? This is a "lefty" blog.

[Exexecution]

What's your point, if any?

[HawaiianPunch]

You betcha.

What's your point, chief?

[Hawaii5-0]

I'm not sure what Greenwald's position is, but I was appalled and disappointed with NPR's multiple stories discussing whether or not waterboarding is torture. There is already legal precedents that it IS torture and others have been put to death or in jail for doing so. It's obivous to most people with a sense of decency that calling it "enhanced interrogation" was the Bush Administration's Orwellian attempt to call it something else. Collateral damage was invented so they would not have to report "innocent civilians" being killed.

It's not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing with Greenwald. Torture violates the Constitution, violates the Geneva Conventions and other treaties the US has signed. Admitting we tortured prisoners (detainees), would be admitting to violations of the Constitution and international treaties. So guess what they did? Called it something else and hope that no one would notice. You can't fool all the people all the time.

[waitomo]

Greenwald thinks of himself as this righteous crusader against all that's evil in the world. Unfortunately, his actions don't match his rhetoric. Just ask him sometime about when he posted a propaganda video for terrorists without actually doing any checking to see if it really was what it was purported to be. It wasn't, not by a longshot. That's something he'd excoriate anyone else for doing, but since it served his purposes, he threw all his journalistic ethics out the window. That's Glenn Greenwald. Hypocrite.

[Exexecution]

Those are big words and I noticed completely unsubstantiated or accompanied by any link.

[Nudalhade]

Only people with weak or dubious arguments need links to shore themselves up.

[hbhawaii]

In defense of NPR, they really are the only US news organization doing serious foreign reporting from abroad. Almost no-one else has "feet on the ground" any more -- certainly not the newspapers.

[JackNasty]

Must you have your new filtered through a corporate US source?

You are aware that the other nations, even those abroad, have news organizations aren't you? What's more, those sources are available on the Internets. You just need to look deeper into those Internet tubes.

[hbhawaii]

I subscribe to the Economist and listen to the BBC all the time.

Just saying that NPR does a better job than most of the U.S. media, and I did say U.S. media. Their reporting on India, for instance has been excellent.

No need to be snottyt.

[Badbowler]

comedy central?

[ThinkCreeps]

Unfortunately not. Comedy central does a good job at raising issues and speaking truth to power, but they don't have the network of sources, time and resources to do investigations. It should be embarrassing for US TV/radio journalism that comedy central is the best you get.

[Yermammy]

There is no defense for their lies and obfuscation, anymore. NPR is the biggest hoax there is. At least Faux Noise is open about their slanted news.

[ThinkCreeps]

OK, but they buy that in

[seattle music]

NPR insists on calling waterboarding "enhanced interrogation techniques"?

I suppose that when referring to the Holocaust, they call operating the gas chambers "enhanced gene-pool manipulation techniques"?

Sheesh.

Sometimes genocide is just genocide, and torture is just torture.

Call a thing by its name.

[JackNasty]

In the early 1990s, NPR was taken over by apologists for right-wing corporatists. I rarely bother with it now. .

[Exexecution]

That is correct: Bush appointee Kenneth Tomlinson and NPR was changed forever.

[Paxhope]

Well, I guess that, if I really wanted the truth, I'd listen to Amy Goodman.
I sincerely suspect that she's got the goods.
But gosh, truth is hard to listen to on a frequent basis.

[Alcove-One]

Goodman is a fringe leftist.

[grayforester]

The truth has a well-known liberal bias.

[Exexecution]

What does that mean?

[truthglow]

Glenn Greenwald is absolutely, in no uncertain terms, on the CORRECT SIDE of this issue!!!

[ResistanceisFutile]

NPR is on the wrong side of this argument. They should call water boarding what it is, torture.

Their argument not to call it torture is untenable and down right morally and ethically inexcusable.

NPR has lost some credibility with me.

[flossophy]

That's actually a good thing that they've lost credibility with you. That means they're being more responsible with journalism.

[marco01]

So I guess it's a forgone conclusion that you buy Bushco's Orwellian rebranding of torture?

[S1m0n]

Greenwald's isn't a reasonable position, because combat by duelling soundbite isn't 'debate'. Or if it is, it's an exceedingly limited mode of debate. There are a LOT of other, and better, ways to defend a an idea.

[Exexecution]

Really? It was very widely cited. Is that an accident? She got about 400 comments on her blog where she usually gets 10 at the most. How ineffective is that?

[S1m0n]

Who said 'ineffective'?

Calling someone a chicken isn't debate, it's a taunt. It defends no principle, displays nothing in the way of knowlege, insight, or intellect, and while it cranks up the already convinced, it convinces noone else of the validity of your position.

[swift goat pet for truth]

NPR = GOPer tool

[flossophy]

Oh please... your comments strain credibility to new heights.

[grayforester]

It's corporate sponsors call the shots.

What was the egregious NPR bias of which you speak? I know the one I'm thinking about.

[Exexecution]

flossophy
Tool: How about that Palin resignation. The governor of your wet dreams is facing federal indicment.
Oh my....are you flaccid yet?

[cosmicbullfight]

Oh, yeah. NPR is really a bastion of political calculation and extreme bias. It's just full of talking heads screaming at each other, without care for the factual validity of their arguments.
.

Oh, wait...

[Gregg421]

AMEN!!

[Alcove-One]

National Pretentious Radio

[greysells2]

What do we know about the background and qualifications of Alicia Shephard?

[Exexecution]

She is a professor of media ethics. Irony much?

[BrickSykes]

Look, folks. When the Grover Norquist/Tom Delay/George Bush crowd moved to privatize EVERYTHING in the country, that's what they tried to do, and NPR was a major target. It has been infiltrated just like any other 'bureau'. There will take conscious effort to root it out and return it to its former 'Public' oriented ways.

Brick

[Schvenzlerman]

You don't get it; "public" means government which means beholden to the empire. NPR is National Pentagon Radio.

[flossophy]

sigh.

Oh, this h0rrible empire... sending McDonalds, Starbucks and overweight tourists out to c0nquer the globe... along with tens of billions in foreign aid.

I'd love to see what the world looks like through your distorted lenses... must be a hoot.

[greysells2]

This is old news. We already know Ms. Shephard and NPR are afraid to respond to the mess they have created. Must be the pressure from some members of Congress and not the listeners that made the diff..

[SteveDenver]

Alicia Shepard was on TALK OF THE NATION explaining that it is her personal opinion that harsh interrogation tactics amount to "torture," but as ombudsman it is NOT her job to create or criticize NPR's policy of referring to such tactics as "what some consider torture." She's had her say and chooses not to step into the bullpen with the bulls. Good for her!

[valkyrie607]

"Some" here is the Constitution, the American legal system, the Convention on Torture (signed by Reagan), the Geneva Conventions, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Her job as ombudsman is to represent listeners' concerns and opinions to NPR. She's not doing her job, she's shilling for NPR and the former Bush administration.

Why are you defending her? Are you a fan of torture? Excuse me, "enhanced interrogation techniques"?

[Leatherhelmet]

Torture is not in the constitution. Waterboarding doesn't rise to the level of violating any of the agreements you mentioned. I am a fan of "torture". It is not her job to shill for your side of the argument or for Obama.

[Schvenzlerman]

Indeed, why call interrogation that resulted in the deaths of over 200 internees "torture?" Good for her!

[BatedBreath]

NPR is stuffed to the gills with bush appointees. The caliber of commentator and the intellectual caliber of the programs has been dumbed down and politicized.

[Paul Hackett]

Agree 100%. It's actually a shockingly conservative radio station. And they've had the same old farts (who don't have a thing to say and would never rock the boat) presenting the shows for far too long. It's amazingly dull compared to the kind of vigorous political debate you'll find on something like the BBC talk channels.

[Schvenzlerman]

You don't get it. NPR is stuffed to the gills with government shills. There is no difference between a Bush hack and an Obama hack. They all carry water for the empire's death machine.

[swift goat pet for truth]

Your statement about government shills may or may not be true.

What is true is that Obama has not had the time to stuff NPR with his shills yet.
So they are still Bush's shills.