Why the Washington Post refuses to label waterboarding as torture

The Washington Post - scourge of former president Richard Nixon - appears to have gone soft in the face of imagined threats from members of former president George W. Bush's administration.

The paper's congressional reporter, Paul Kane, revealed in an online forum that the Post will not call waterboarding torture because it fears being sued for libel (and the paper could not bear the resulting costs).

A questioner asked:

"What's the difference betwee the 'harsh interrogations' I keep reading about in the Post and actual 'torture'? If it's the same thing, then why not just call it 'torture'? I don't get it. Aren't you guys continuing to catapult Bush-era propaganda when you use such NewSpeak euphemisms for what we all (finally) know was clearly torture, based on US and international law?"

Kane replied:

"You can't call someone a convicted murderer until he/she has actually been convicted. Understand? Get it? The reason we say 'alleged' murder and things like that is for our own legal protection. So we can't be sued for libel. Take a look at financial reports on the newspaper business. We're not going to do anything that leads to us losing any more money these days."

That interchange took place on April 23, but appeared to have passed under the US media-monitoring radar until Colorado Independent writer John Tomasic highlighted it yesterday in a highly critical blog posting.

He wrote of Kane's response (and I make no apology for reproducing most of it here, because it's so damned good):

"That's what we get from one of the leading names of our financially crumbling, utterly on its heels newspaper industry: the whining retreat of a whipped pup instead of the toothy growl of a watchdog.

"What could be better, ultimately, for the Washington Post than if Dick Cheney sued it for using the word 'torture' in reference to the Bush administration's enhanced interrogation policies?Nothing could be better. Imagine the material that would have to be brought into the courtroom...

"Imagine the Washington Post coverage of the trial and the millions of readers and TV watchers reveling in the story. Imagine journalists standing up for themselves against the Bush administration, albeit belatedly, and asserting their right to speak truth to power."

Tomasic concludes:

"It is a time for bold moves, not lawyerly cowardice. Washington Post, go for it: Dare them to sue you. Get sued by Cheney. You win even if you lose."

Indeed, where has the spirit of Watergate gone?

Sources: Colorado Independent/Washington Post Hat tip: E&P pub