Under-reported story: Human Rights Watch

My friend and former student Bethany sent me an email asking why American papers generally ignored an important story.

She provided a link to the Al Jazeera report on the Jan. 18 story, which said:

The United States has a deliberate strategy of abusing terror suspects
during interrogation, Human Rights Watch has said in its annual report on abuses
in more than 70 countries.

Based mostly on statements by senior administration officials in 2005,
the human rights group said the reassurances of President George Bush that the
United States does not torture suspects were deceptive and rang hollow.
"In 2005 it became disturbingly clear that the abuse of detainees had become a
deliberate, central part of the Bush administration's strategy of interrogating
terrorist suspects," the report said.

Bush's repeated assurances that US interrogators do not torture prisoners
deceptively and studiously avoid mentioning that international law prohibits
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners, Human Rights Watch said.

This is what I told Bethany:

That Human Rights Watch story should have been front-page news all over America, in my opinion. I did read about it in the Christian Science Monitor, but I don't think it was in the Cape Cod Times. I did a Google News search on the subject, and you are absolutely right, it was largely ignored. A lot of mainstream papers did follow the New York Times report of secret CIA bases in Europe, and all I can think is that they decided that was enough "anti-American" news for one week. I know it is not one big vast conspiracy. I guess a lot of individual editors are scared of offending too many readers and advertisers by appearing anti-American.

I think that it is important for U.S. news media to report on the American image abroad so Americans can make intelligent decisions about the causes of anti-American violence. If people abroad think the United States tortures people, they are less likely to be friendly to the U.S. and more likely to attack us, both verbally and with bombs.