"All the News That's Fit to Print," Feh! Fire Bill Keller--or Shut Down the New York Times Today--Your Choice

Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?

Does anybody think Bill Keller should run the New York Times? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

Emptywheel:

Bill Keller Suppresses American Tradition of Opposition to Torture: When asked by NYT’s own media reporter about the NYT’s refusal to use the word torture, Bill Keller could barely exert himself to say more than the official press statement. Here’s what the spokesperson gave to Michael Calderone....

[The paper] has written so much about the waterboarding issue that we believe the Kennedy School study is misleading.... As the debate over interrogation of terror suspects grew post-9/11, defenders of the practice (including senior officials of the Bush administration) insisted that it did not constitute torture.... When using a word amounts to taking sides in a political dispute, our general practice is to supply the readers with the information to decide for themselves. Thus we describe the practice vividly, and we point out that it is denounced by international covenants and in American tradition as a form of torture.

And here’s what Keller gave NYT’s Brian Stelter: "Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, said:

the news paper has written so much about the issue of waterboarding that, “I think this Kennedy School study — by focusing on whether we have embraced the politically correct term of art in our news stories — is somewhat misleading and tendentious”... defenders of the practice of waterboarding, “including senior officials of the Bush administration,” insisted that it did not constitute torture.... When using a word amounts to taking sides in a political dispute, our general practice is to supply the readers with the information to decide for themselves. Thus we describe the practice vividly, and we point out that it is denounced by international covenants and human rights advocates in American tradition as a form of torture. Nobody reading The Times’ coverage could be ignorant of the extent of the practice (much of that from information we broke) or mistake it for something benign (we usually use the word ‘brutal.’)”

So, what Keller adds:

1. add "somewhat" to modify the NYT claim that the KSG study is misleading
2. add "tendentious" to describe the KSG study
3. add "of waterboarding" to describe "the practice"--note "waterboarding" and not "water torture"
4. add "human rights advocates" to say that waterboarding is denounced by human rights advocates as well as international covenants
5. strike "in American tradition": Keller does not dare to say--even today--that waterboarding is "denounced...in American tradition as a form of torture."
6. add the stentence "Nobody reading The Times’ coverage could be ignorant of the extent of the practice (much of that from information we broke) or mistake it for something benign (we usually use the word ‘brutal.’)"

A cowardly act for the 4th of July weekend.