The Media’s Views on War and Torture Aren’t Fixed

By spocko, on December 12th, 2014%

As a person who has had his brain physically removed once, mentally transferred twice (not to mention controlled, rebooted and sped up) I think a lot about what influences, controls and re-configures our brains and how we use those methods on others.

I’ve been working on a series of posts on media based on Aaron Sorkin’s HBO show, The Newsroom at Crooks and Liars and talking about torture at Hullabaloo, Firedoglake and here.

Besides just analyzing what is happening, I keep thinking, “What is to be done?”

The Newsroom, a fantasy, has shown the external and internal pressures today’s media (esp. TV news) are under. Financial, political, professional, ethical and personal.

In the real world the news media has gone from a public trust to a profit center. They are now part of a “portfolio of companies” dedicated to maximizing shareholder value.

This last week, with the release of the Senate Torture Report, I was remind of what started me on my path to push back on the sickness I saw in right wing media.

We have have tremulous success in de-funding the right wing media using reason, politeness and an understanding of what pressures the right wing media . . . → Read More: The Media’s Views on War and Torture Aren’t Fixed

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Here’s What The Media Isn’t Talking About, the Immorality of Torture

By spocko, on December 10th, 2014%

I’ve been on the “torture beat” for a long time. It makes me a real drag at dinner parties, so I decided to move those conversations out to the web and to the media.

So much of the current discussion in the media about torture is focusing on, “Does it work?” There is little focus on, “Is it right?”

People in the media are looking at the legality, but not the morality. Discussing morality makes the mainstream media uncomfortable. To help them out, I’ve been suggesting they talk to Dr. Rebecca Gordon, a philosophy professor at University of San Francisco, who wrote this book:

Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post – 9/11 United States.

(It got great reviews from Torture Magazine! Seriously, there is a Torture Magazine.)

Here she is on Fox News 2 KTVU last night.

This morning she was on the Majority Report with Sam Seder. (Audio link.She starts at 30 minutes in.)

Because she has a depth of knowledge she can talk about the legal and political issues around torture, but especially the moral issues. We need to talk about that. The moral condemnation of acts of torture is not a given today.

Bill O’Reilly thinks . . . → Read More: Here’s What The Media Isn’t Talking About, the Immorality of Torture

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