| ||||||||||||||
MEDIA CRITICISM:“Indefinite Detentions” on the Fourth
This is not law enforcement. This is not national security. This is not counter-terrorism. Being held for months on end without counsel, without even hearing what one is charged with, is torture. The founders of this nation knew such dangers so clearly that the Constitutional Convention refused to pass its own constitution, prepared by some of its most esteemed members, without the additional guarantee and protection of ten key amendments, known as the Bill of Rights:
Amendment V: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Amendment VI: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. Then there are the arguments that these people are not really prisoners but “detainees,” or that these are not prosecutions since (after all) the prisoners are not being charged with anything. The constitutional creators were wise to that kind of game, too:
I am well aware of not being an attorney (in the interest of full disclosure, I have taken only one law course, in Constitutional Law, and I took it only out of interest, when I was already a faculty member at the time, from a friend of mine). I am also well aware that I am not one of the swelled heads pontificating on television, paid huge sums of money by interest groups. But it would be unwise to exaggerate the differences between an ordinary citizen, like me, and some individuals with more heavily subsidized access to major media outlets. The policy of indefinite detention pursued by the current administration is humiliating to all Americans. It is not somehow less of a humiliation for George F. Will (formerly designated a “constitutional scholar” and a “constitutional expert”) or for Charles Krauthammer than for me, just because Will and Krauthammer go along with it and I don’t. Their powerlessness or lack of ability or will to stand for fundamentals of American justice is being exposed daily, for the world to see. Holding prisoners without even charging them with anything is a form of humiliation extending beyond the prisoners themselves to the general public, and even to our largest media outlets. Never in the history of this country have the noses of top management at the biggest newspapers, television networks, etc., been so thoroughly rubbed in it as by a White House apparently complacent in its assurance that no media personnel dare report adequately even the grossest invasion of cherished liberties. This very week, key figures from large media outlets—from the heads of the parent companies of television networks to Warren Buffett, major investor behind the Washington Post—are to gather for an annual meeting at the Sun Valley mountain resort in Idaho. They’re being humiliated, too, for all the world to see. Speaking of deficiencies—Perhaps it is beside the point that the violation of habeas corpus is instituted by a Vice President, Cheney, formerly CEO of the company that saw no problem in beefing up Saddam’s oil fields after not one war but two wars; a Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld, photographed in the 1980s smiling and shaking hands with Saddam Hussein as Washington’s emissary in bringing US assistance to Iraq; and a president, Bush, whose own father played a major role in the future blowback being prepared by the Reagan and senior Bush administrations. Perhaps those large blind spots are not beside the point. Either way, either charge these individuals, or let them go. To do neither, after all, strongly implies that there was something about the process itself that will not stand up to public scrutiny. Some of these prisoners may be genuinely bad people; in any dragnet where locals were paid a bounty for turning over other people, maybe not every call would be wrong. Wouldn’t any of us be tempted to turn in our friendly neighborhood rapist as a “terrorist,” especially if offered inducements to do so? But there is always the probability of abuse with vigilante justice, especially with paid vigilante justice. Meanwhile, that our news media aren’t getting a good handle on this kind of thing is taking its own toll. Even setting aside the effect of this odd policy on prisoners, if one could, the effect on our news media is ongoing. Media conferences or no media conferences, in general, people quit reading the newspaper (or even watching television news) when they can no longer find out what’s going on by reading the paper. Margie Burns, a college instructor, resides near Washington, DC. She may be reached at margie.burns@verizon.net.
Copyright © 2005 The Baltimore Chronicle.
All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent. This story was published on July 5, 2005. |
Local News & Opinion
Ref. : Local Newsbriefs Travel
Letters
Ref. : Letters to the editor Open Letters:
03.05 Open Letter to Congressman Bart Stupak Health & Environment
Video National Health Care Systems In Other Countries 03.18 Pressure Drop: Brave Sir Dennis Ran Away 03.12 Slick Barry and the $100-Billion Medicaid/Medicare Fraud Claim 03.09 Kill Bill: Death to Obamacare! 03.09 Obama’s Rhetoric May Be “Fiery,” But His Health Care Reform Is Still Lukewarm Media Watching
03.17 CNN Scrapes Bottom of Right-Wing Barrel With Erickson Hire 03.16 WPost Blames Obama First, on Israel 03.16 Letter to the New York Times' Editor: Stovepiping To Persia 03.12 Cud and Complicity: Burying the Alternatives to Empire's Dominion 03.11 NYT and the ACORN Hoax 03.05 Sorry, Rove, Bush Did Lie About Iraq 03.03 It's Snow News 03.03 The Woeful Washington Post Ref. : The Daily Howler Legal Matters
02.26 America's Supremes: Court Over Constitution US Politics, Policy & Culture
03.11 Power Rangers: Policing the System With the "Fightin' Progressives" 03.09 Thinking About Countings 03.07 Unnatural Acts: Breaking the Fever of Militarism 02.25 Future Shock: A Better World Beyond the Imperium High Crimes?
03.19 Israel's Troubling Tilt Toward Apartheid 03.18 The Lawfare Project's Anti-Democratic Agenda 03.16 America's Secret Prisons 03.13 Palestinian Dispossession in East Jerusalem 03.12 Israeli Settlement Expansions Continue 03.11 Brutalizing Palestinian Children 03.08 The Russell Tribunal on Palestine: Barcelona Session 03.05 Targeting Israeli Apartheid 03.01 America's Permanent War Agenda 02.25 Global Sweatshop Wage Slavery Economics & Business Non/Mis/Malfeasance
03.19 The Growing Movement For Publicly-Owned Banks 03.19 America's "Houdini Recovery" under IMF-Type Austerity 03.14 The Crisis in America's Telecommunications Network 03.09 The Business of Water: Privatizing An Essential Resource 03.05 Is the Recovery Real? 03.04 IMF-Style Austerity Measures come to America: What “Fiscal Responsibility” Means To You 03.04 Barry C. Lynn's "Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and Economics of Destruction" 03.01 Thinking About Fees International
03.15 Peace Process Hypocrisy: Stillborn from Inception 03.03 Muslim Disunity 03.02 Funding Israeli Militarism, Belligerence and Occupation 02.26 Iran Captures a 'Good' Terrorist We are a non-profit Internet-only newspaper publication founded in 1973. Your donation is essential to our survival.
|
| ||||||||||||