Unreal: Carnage in Mosul is providing cover for new torture revelations

[Stevendsmith]

FBI memos indicate that--surprise!--the torture in Gitmo and Iraq was directed from the Oval Office, but the televised media is almost silent on this nuclear bombshell. The needless death and maming in Mosul is providing the distraction.

Impressive.

[glitch]

1. Indeed. Although not their best work. nt

[Synnical]

2. ACLU breaks biggest investigative piece of the week

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000741208

Press Still Falling Down on Iraq
Who broke the big investigative story of the week? Not AP or CBS or NYT but that famed news organization, the ACLU. And the destruction of Fallujah has already slipped off the front page and every other page.

By Danny Schechter

NEW YORK (December 22, 2004) -- Since when did the American Civil Liberties Union become a media organization? Or put another way: Why has so much of our press fallen down on the job of pushing the Bush Administration to disclose information about its war-related practices, ranging from how it provides for our troops to detailing military abuse of prisoners and detainees?

Documents pried from the government by the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act, disclosed this week, suggest that the abuse of detainees was more systematic than we knew and ordered from on high. One email even indicates that President Bush signed off on the policy. While the administration disputes the document, that famous question raised during the Watergate investigation comes around again in a different form: What did the president know, and when did he forget he knew it?

The ACLU's success at breaking news also raises the question of how aggressive our press has been in challenging military rationales and White House message points.

Even as the frame and focus of coverage changed from liberation to occupation, from invasion to insurgency, the essential news dynamic remains the same. It's still AAU: "All About U.S."

Compare the number of stories devoted to the impact the war has had on the people of Iraq with the number on body armor and troop deployments. The destruction of Fallujah has slipped not only off the front pages but off every page. Not only is there no continuing reporting on civilian casualties (estimates range from 20,000 to 100,000 or more) but also few on why so many average Iraqis oppose the occupation.

More . . .