The US media on ‘torture’

Watch part two

The debate raging in the US media on torture is not really about what was done to people in US jails, be they in Iraq, Afghanistan or Guantanamo Bay. Water-boarding, sleep and sensory deprivation, wall slamming – all of that is on the record.

The debate is about how much information the US government should reveal about what was done in the name of the US people and about why important US news outlets, such as the New York Times, cannot bring themselves to say that water-boarding is, in fact, torture. 

In part two The Listening Post’s Simon Ostrovsky reports on the online phenomenon in Russia called ‘Snob’.

The success of social networks like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter is often explained by their egalitarian principles – anybody can join and they can hook up with people and communities online.

But Snob will not take just anyone. Snob forces prospective members to undergo a rigorous selection process they gain entry, and it mainly surrounds money.

In this week’s Newsbytes: the disturbing video that has gone viral in Guatemala; hate groups being set up on social networking sites; strike action at Radio France International; the New York Times and plagiarism from the Internet; and journalist phone-calls to the White House press corps.

And finally, we are partial to flash mobs here at The Listening Post. This one, from a train station in Antwerp, Belgium, was organised by the producers of a reality TV show. There is something about 200 dancers moving to a song from the Sound of Music – and turning a train station into an impromptu stage – that touches people. Maybe that is why our web video of the week has attracted well over two million hits.

This episode of The Listening Post aired from Friday, May 22, 2009.