{"id":99,"date":"2015-01-10T17:10:32","date_gmt":"2015-01-10T22:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/l-stires.com\/thinking-slowly\/?p=99"},"modified":"2015-09-03T19:34:03","modified_gmt":"2015-09-03T23:34:03","slug":"tv-networks-on-torture-just-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/l-stires.com\/thinking-slowly\/tv-networks-on-torture-just-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"TV Networks on Torture: “Just Do It!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the December 9 release of the Report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence<\/a>, widely known as the torture report, it became the #1 story on the weekly television news programs. Since journalists seldom express opinions on such matters as whether \u201crectal hydration\u201d constitutes torture or whether politicians who approved such methods should be prosecuted, the best measure of the corporate media\u2019s position on these issues is to examine the guests who are invited onto their programs to express their views.<\/p>\n

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) surveyed the guests<\/a> on nine TV news programs during the week of December 7 through 14: ABC\u2019s This Week<\/em>, CBS\u2019s Face the Nation<\/em>, CNN\u2019s State of the Union<\/em> and Situation Room<\/em>, Fox\u2019s Fox News Sunday<\/em> and Special Report<\/em>, MSNBC\u2019s Hardball<\/em>, NBC\u2019s Meet the Press<\/em>, and PBS\u2019s News Hour<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Of the 104 guests<\/a> on these programs, 53 of them indicated whether they supported or opposed the \u201cenhanced interrogation techniques\u201d described in the report. Thirty-five of them (66%) supported the CIA\u2019s actions, while the remaining 18 (34%) were opposed. While some progressive critics worried that the networks would give equal time to torturers, they probably didn\u2019t anticipate that the \u201cliberal\u201d media would present more advocates of torture than opponents by a two-to-one margin. (Of course, most of those who supported the CIA\u2019s actions usually also claimed that they did not constitute \u201ctorture.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Sixty-five of the 104 guests<\/a> were journalists, most of whom remained neutral. The second largest group was 35 current and former government officials. Nine CIA officers were among them, seven of whom defended their agency\u2019s practices. Of those who were political partisans, 19 were Republicans and 7 were Democrats. Four of the Democrats spoke against torture while the others had no opinion. Sixteen of the Republicans favored the CIA\u2019s actions and three opposed them. For more details on what was actually said, see this report<\/a>.)<\/p>\n