White House Torture Demo and the Media Yawns

My friend Stephen Schend is fed up with the so-called media in this country too. He describes his concern eloquently on his blog here. An excerpt:

Last week, ABC News revealed that the highest levels of the Bush administration met regularly in the White House to discuss and approve specific torture techniques to be used on prisoners in U.S. custody. ABC's source said CIA officials "acted out" certain kinds of torture and senior administration officials "choreographed" the way the torture was to be done.

On April 10, President Bush admitted that he knew about these meetings and approved of them, despite the fact that some techniques under discussion are outlawed in the United States and under numerous international treaties such as the Geneva Conventions.

The lack of coverage this story has received makes it seem more people are interested in one word by Senator Obama or whether or not Senator Clinton does shots. This is untrue. This simply underscores the apathetic inability of the mainstream media to cover issues of substance over personality-based politics.

I don't believe enough Americans are aware that top Bush officials were intricately involved in discussions of specific torture techniques. I strongly doubt that, like me, most Americans approve of such things being done in their name. The former Attorney General John Ashcroft was quoted in the ABC piece objecting at the time to holding such meetings in the White House saying, "history will not be kind." That is an extreme understatement.

Read Stephen's complete article here.