Al Jazeera English: US media's double standards

[SealLion]

Check it out:

We focus on double standards in the US media when it comes to covering the so-called 'war on terror'.

There has been a lack of consistency in what state-side news is reporting, and a lack of confidence in their coverage as a result.

We take a look at the willingness of Barack Obama, the US president, to suppress certain images, and the US media's reticence in even using the word "torture".

Torture is all over the place in thier jail cells in Cuba. It is also exists when any country sends thier terror suspects to other country's for information gathering that may even involve torture to get info.

It doesn't matter what you call it: Rough treatment or what-ever. It doesn't matter. In these cases, you know it's torture. You can't hide behind words and try to make it look like something else.

Though, the enemy might/may practice it, so I am wondering if it should also be expected of governments??

How do you get info from some one who's the enemy if torture is/could be/might be the only 'workable' method if trying to turn the potential informant to your side doesn't work??

Your thoughts??


Anyways...here's the link:

Al Jazeera English - LISTENING POST - US media's double standards

video available at website.

[slikrapid]

its a well known fact that mainstream media plays ball with the government and tends to censor or manipulate news to make it more suitable for a certain agenda - sometimes they are exaggerated in order to influence people or to produce a desired reaction, sometimes its stripped of unwanted details (to preserve our feeble minds from the extreme or unusual ) or plainly covered up for some reason

reminds me of doctors, when they tell you the lie to 'protect' you

some media go to such distances as to avoid using certain words (like torture) or even distort the reality in order to fit their own (or their owners) point of view

as for torture itself - objectively speaking it can be a useful method for obtaining information from those that are not trained to withstand it (i would imagine terrorist group members would be trained for that) or those who openly show fear of some situation/subject/scenario... and there is another thing - those in power/control tend to enjoy torturing others one way or another, sometimes its even required as a proof of allegiance

one would think that in this age of advanced information gathering there would be no need for archaic methods yet it seems our society has evolved only on paper - in reality we are still resorting to violence on many occasions

[SealLion]

everything you've stated here reminds me of another Al Jazeera English video that's on the site. It's also about torture, though it happens to take place in current Iraq.

There was obviously torture techniques and practices going on in Iraq when Saddam was in office. Thing's don't change that much, I guess.


People do not go to court to face judgement. Things are kept silent.

Anyways...here's the video that I briefly mentioned above.
It's also on Al Jazeera's website but can also be found on YT if you search for it.

Al Jazeera English - INSIDE IRAQ - Silent torture

[suroyo]

one would think that in this age of advanced information gathering there would be no need for archaic methods yet it seems our society has evolved only on paper - in reality we are still resorting to violence on many occasions

True, but I often wonder how this would change once technologies that allow one to find out the truth via a 'brain-scan' or something of the sort become reality. I don't remember where I read the article, but apparently that capability is not very far away from being realized soon.

[slikrapid]

I often wonder how this would change once technologies that allow one to find out the truth via a 'brain-scan' or something of the sort become reality. I don't remember where I read the article, but apparently that capability is not very far away from being realized soon.

you know, i'm quite skeptical about such possibility - if they meant a polygraph-like type of a machine that would recognize brain behavior patterns imo that one would be beatable just like the original machine as long as one can control his own thoughts, on the other hand if its more like memories/images extraction, then who knows if such a thing could even be verified...still seems more like some distant future possibilities