 |
         
|
George on Torture Pics. That is the blunt, accusatory headline that ABC News uses to describe the cautious q-&-a that anchor Charles Gibson conducted with This Week's George Stephanopoulos about the looming release of hundreds of internal Pentagon photographs documenting abuse of its prisoners. The "treatment of terrorism suspects" was how Gibson put it, even though many of the abused prisoners at abu-Ghraib were under no suspicion of terrorism. "Harsh interrogation practices," was as confrontational as Stephanopoulos' verbiage managed to be.
ABC News' headline either exposes Gibson and Stephanopoulos talking out of both sides of their mouth, referring directly to "torture" off air while remaining decorously deferential on air. Or it reveals a boisterous behind-the-scenes editorial disagreement at ABC News between euphemizing broadcasters and plainspoken online staffers.
NBC's Ann Curry and ABC's Martha Raddatz, meanwhile, were on hand in Baghdad where some bona fide terrorist carnage had occurred. "Horrific bombings," ABC's Raddatz called them, as 140 were killed in three separate explosions, including "blasts that tore though crowds of worshippers gathered at the holiest Shiite site in Baghdad." Unfortunately there would be no interrogation--harsh or otherwise--for the perpetrators. They were suicidal. Many of their targets were pilgrims from Iran. Gen Raymond Odierno told NBC's Curry that he believes the dead bombers belonged to al-Qaeda because "three of the four have been female"--a hallmark sign.
You must be logged in to this website to leave a comment. Please click here to log in so you can participate in the discussion.
