[lbo-talk] TV quashes torture coverage as "indecent"

Carl Remick carlremick at hotmail.com
Wed Jan 19 22:50:13 PST 2005


On Television, Torture Takes a Holiday

BY FRANK RICH

... A more sub rosa deterrent to TV coverage of torture is the chilling effect of this administration's campaign against "indecency" through its proxy, Michael Powell, at the Federal Communications Commission. If stations are fearful of airing "Saving Private Ryan" on Veterans Day, they are unlikely to go into much depth about war stories involving forced group masturbation, electric shock, rape committed with a phosphorescent stick, the burning of cigarettes in prisoners' ears, involuntary enemas and beatings that end in death. (At least 30 prisoner deaths have been under criminal investigation.) When one detainee witness at the Graner trial testified in a taped deposition that he had been forced to eat out of a toilet, that abuse was routinely cited in newspaper accounts but left unreported on network TV newscasts. It might, after all, upset viewers nearly as much as Bono's expletive at the 2003 Golden Globes. ...

<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/arts/23rich.html?8hpib=&pagewanted=all&position=>

Carl



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