NBC - NETWORK ANCHORS BEGIN USING THE WORD "TORTURE"

NETWORK ANCHORS BEGIN USING THE WORD "TORTURE"

Andrew Tyndall, who monitors each of the nightly network newscasts for his long-running "The Tyndall Report," observed Wednesday that network anchors are beginning to show less reluctance to using the term "torture" in describing the abuse of prisoners of war. Noting that in stories this week concerning the administration's consideration of potential prosecution of lawyers in the Bush administration for giving the go-ahead for torturing prisoners, "euphemism is slowly being stripped away," Tyndall noted that both NBC anchor Brian Williams and CBS anchor Katie Couric had both used the term "torture," although ABC's Charles Gibson continued to use the words "harsh interrogation." Network correspondents, however, have been less willing to use the "T" word, with NBC's Andrea Mitchell referring to "harshest interrogation tactics, which some call torture," and CBS's Bob Orr referring to "so-called torture memos." Like Gibson, ABC's Jake Tapper referred only to "harsh interrogation."

23/04/2009