The torture memos and Bizarro World
April 22, 2009 3:51 pm ET by Eric Boehlert
Does anybody else think it's odd, albeit telling, that for chunks of the corporate press corps, the emphasis surrounding the release of the Bush era torture memos is now centered on the political problems they've created for the Obama administration--how the memos reflect poorly on the current White House--and not, y'know, what the memos say about the administration that actually okayed the law breaking in the first place?
Please note how the press has (surprise!) turned the torture memo story into a Beltway process one (i.e. the Obama White House is "creating confusion and political vulnerability"), and turned away from the larger issues at hand.
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2 things:
1. Have you noticed the difference between a free-thinking & open Dem administration and the automaton Borg-style Repub administration? To the press, this is interpreted as "muddle messaging" and inconsistency.
2. The press pokes and prods Dems because they're afraid of Bush/Cheney
"Wow, these memos reveal that the previous administration might have broken the law. Let's write stories about how Obama will look bad if he is in favor of prosecuting them!"
Yeah, it's disgusting.
Going back to topic. How is prosecuting people who have broken laws in the US bad for the democratic administration again? What better way to show the country that no matter who you are, you break the law, you pay the price?
I would say it's irresponsible and "odd" in the sense of the way most normal human beings would think about it. But it's not odd compared to their previous performance on this issue. They've had five years of practice since the Abu Ghuraib scandal broke in 2004 to practice mishandling the torture issue.
One thing that continues to surprise me, though, is that Obama's team and many Democrats in Congress still act as though it would somehow be politically damaging for them to prosecute torture perpetrators. I don't care if it is politically damaging to the Democrats in some way. The anti-torture laws and treaties are a very big deal. And the Justice Department has an obligation to investigate these charges seriously. In my understanding of the Torture Convention, the idea of waiving prosecutions for reasons of state is not acceptable, either.
But how is it going to hurt the Obama administration to have it spelled out in court under oath how seriously the Cheney-Bush administration was violating the laws on torture? How is showing that the other side acting like a bunch of scoundrels of the worst kind bad for the Democrats? In other words, apart from badly neglecting the legal issues themselves, even in treating this as a process story, our Fourth Estate is doing a lousy job.