Please help me understand some terminology...

[RT Atlanta]

Beyond DU, Kos and a few other sites, I pick up most of my daily "news" from NPR in the morning and evening when I head to and from work. Again this morning, NPR was discussing the President's decision (the 180/"about face" per Faux "reporter" Juan Williams) to now withhold releasing more torture photos. The reporter (the male NPR morning show host (name escapes me) and Ari Shapiro I believe) for the most part used "harsh interrogation techniques" when referring to torture and photos.

Here's my question/concern: why do so many reporters/correspondents in the MSM continue to refer to the acts done in our country's name as "harsh interrogation techniques" rather than what they were - torture?

I am an otherwise educated person, but have little formal education on journalism and media relations. Hence, I struggle to understand why some terms are used more often than others in the press.

Is it all about "framing?"

[izquierdista]

1. Frank Luntz

I will bet, that behind it all is that mastermind of bullshit, Frank Luntz. He has probably been called to do double duty, cover the ass of the Bushies and torpedo any new health care initiatives. You're right, it's ALL about framing, or more properly "marketing". They are marketing thoroughly discredited ideas with new three-word phrases, and suddenly, all the outrage disappears.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. I'm just waiting for them to say,

"added incentive techniques."

[TreasonousBastard]

3. "Torture" is a heated word, and some of the techniques...

may not quite cross the line into what everyone will agree is torture. We're not talking thumbscrews and the rack for all of this stuff, but things like sensory deprivation, humiliation, and instilling dread and fear for much of it-- and they are harsh, but not always torture.

This is not to excuse any of it, but to allow for a more reasoned discussion.

[RT Atlanta]

6. You make a good point

That the phrase allows for a more reasoned discussion (although I personally believe this is not fit for discussion).

Thanks to you and everyone else for your insight - it's insightful feedback like this that makes this site so informative.

Be lucky mate.

[Warpy]

4. It's propaganda

The main movers and shakers in the last administration were nothing but glorified ad men whose job was to come up with euphemisms for the completely unacceptable.

Don't let them get away with it. It's torture. It's war crimes. It's fraud. It's theft on a grand scale.

It's ILLEGAL.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. I imagine for many it is because torture is a crime, and nobody has

yet been charged with a crime so to call it torture in the press opens them up to slander or libel or whatever.

Not that that would be a bad thing - let them take it to court to PROVE that enhanced interrogation is not torture...just let them.