You would be hard-pressed to find a "better" example of a walking, talking, typing Old Media double standard-bearer than New York Times columnist and International Herald Tribune (IHT) contributor Nicholas Kristof.
Keep in mind as you read this post that Kristof infamously wrote the following in a 2005 New York Times book review about the person who was "the worst monster in world history," China's Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong):
..... his legacy is not all bad ..... The emancipation of women and end of child marriages moved China from one of the worst places in the world to be a girl to one where women have more equality than in, say, Japan or Korea. ..... Mao’s ruthlessness was a catastrophe at the time ..... yet there’s more to the story: Mao also helped lay the groundwork for the rebirth and rise of China after five centuries of slumber.
Here is Kristof describing an example of what is currently happening in Zimbabwe in the June 29 IHT (bold after headline is mine):
If only Mugabe were white
Patson Chipiro, a democracy activist, wasn't home when Robert Mugabe's thugs showed up looking for him.
So they grabbed his wife, Dadirai, and tormented her by chopping off one of her hands and both of her feet. Finally, they threw her into a hut, locked the door and burned it to the ground.
This is really hard to take. In Nick’s world, to chop off body parts to intimidate political opponents is to “torment.” The headline is more accurate than Kristof imagines: If Mugabe were white, Nick might have written his report using accurate words.
So what's the word Kristof uses to describe techniques people on our side have used to get information that might save soldiers’ or others’ lives that haven't involved permanent injury or loss of limbs?
You guessed it: “torture.” And, of course, it should never be allowed, and must be investigated.
In his News York Times column Sunday, Kristof called for a “Truth Commission, with subpoena power, to investigate the abuses in the aftermath of 9/11.”
I am all for throwing the book at any person or group who stepped over the line, especially into gratuitious violence and murder.
But in Kristof's world, "torture" includes "interrogation techniques borrowed verbatim from records of Chinese methods" and "waterboarding."
They must be "torture," because in his Times column Kristof did not use the objectively less-negative and arguably more accurate word “torment” even once. But he described what those charged with the dangerous task of handling Guantanamo and other detainees have allegedly done as “torture” five times.
Kristof also blithely assumes that "we knew that these torture techniques produced false confessions." Always? Somehow, I doubt that.
So in Nick's world, when our folks aggressively interrogate, it's "torture." But when black Zimbabweans chop off body parts, it's only "torment."
What a sickening double standard.
Posted in shorter form at the end of this entry at BizzyBlog.com.
—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters




















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The emancipation of women
July 11, 2008 - 08:55 ET by motherbeltThe emancipation of women and end of child marriages moved China from
one of the worst places in the world to be a girl to one where women
have more equality than in, say, Japan or Korea. ..
That is, if the girl is actually allowed to be born.....
Shoot 'em all; let God sort 'em out! - Marge Simpson
Indeed
July 11, 2008 - 08:58 ET by Tom BlumerCommentary on how the "40 million missing girls" situation is traumatizing Chinese society is virtually non-existent except in the prolife community.
in his defense - this stuff
July 11, 2008 - 12:29 ET by TruthMongerin his defense - this stuff is so easy to forget about when you're commenting on the state of girls in China:(...?!
Mao Child Abuser
July 11, 2008 - 09:10 ET by richb313It is well know than the great leader Mao had an affinity for 12 year old virgins. This is from the great emancipator.
Anyone who thinks that anything that Mao did was good for China is living in a George Lucas Galaxy a long time ago and far far away.
at least Christians were
July 11, 2008 - 12:30 ET by TruthMongerat least Christians were persecuted severely under mao! a huge liberal point in his favor
Example of media insanity...
July 11, 2008 - 09:30 ET by AgentAmericanThe first amendment protects this lunatic's right to write favorable statements about Mao, whom would have denied him the right. Not sure which frequency these people are tuned in to. I would be afraid to let this Kristof idiot watch anyone's children, just by what he writes. I pray he doesn't have any.
To actually consider physical mutilation as torment and interrogating slimeballs without physical harm TORTURE is crazy.
Drill ANWAR
You're overlooking
July 11, 2008 - 09:37 ET by fonzie2178the left's hate for the US military. They want the military to be for collecting toys and feeding the hungry. When it comes to defending our country (the real reason we have a military) it goes against their peacenik attitudes. And we all know the MSM has no standards or shame, so they'll say anything to downgrade our brave soldiers. Of course they don't see terrorists beheading people as torture either, but US troops laughing at a prisoner is. Typical. Disgusting, but typical.
"Green, the new Red."
Wow - it's amazing that these kooks like Kristof are treated
July 11, 2008 - 11:11 ET by Dee Bunkwith dignity.
These leftists think America is the worst country. It's really sad. I wish they would just leave. Forget Canada too. They should improve their quality of live by moving somewhere in Africa or China or Cuba.
"Constantly attacking (peaceful) religions rather than politely sharing your own shows lack of faith " DB
Torment?
July 11, 2008 - 11:51 ET by okiehawk44I'd love to "torment" this guy!
Come here Krissy, Krissy, Krissy.
i'd be more than happy to
July 11, 2008 - 12:32 ET by TruthMongeri'd be more than happy to chop some limbs off with ya
but waterboarding would be too cruel...
TORTURE...
July 11, 2008 - 14:00 ET by danybhoyNo need to chopping limbs off when you can stuff someone into an iron maiden & just bleed them out. Now that's actually torture, none of that lightweight waterbording crap that the lefties bitch about.
The chopping thing gets a bit messy, & it's a little too hands on for me.
"...it's still We The People, Right?" Megadeth
Kristof's Committee of Vigilance
July 11, 2008 - 12:18 ET by CobraMan"Truth Commission, with subpoena power, to investigate the abuses in the aftermath of 9/11."
We already have one of those. It's called Congress and they have been investigating Bush since he took office, all for naught.
What Kristof really wants is a Committee of Vigilance.
Link
Mao's Contributions To China
July 11, 2008 - 14:51 ET by geoff.galeMao certainly laid the groundwork for the future of China, alright. Between 1949 and his death in 1975, and after his original revolution which killed 6.5 million, Mao subjected the country to purges, reforms, labour camps and the Cultural Revolution that in total cost between 44 and 72 million Chinese and Tibetans their lives. Think about that - at the low end of that estimate it would be the equivalent of killing all the people in California and Arizona; at the high end it would be like killing all the people in California, New York and Florida.
The great man.
Kristof is just another liberal who would attempt to lump all actions in one pot and claim that there's some moral equivalency between them. People such as he, who try to persuade us to relinquish our hard-won moral teachings for the soft, slippery slope of moral equivalence are the embodiment of evil among us.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
- Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)
www.conservativeboot...
Yeah, I concur. His
July 12, 2008 - 09:55 ET by BDYeah, I concur.
His article is the equivalent of saying "At least Mao used sanitary bullets to execute his foes."
All a matter of perspective
July 11, 2008 - 18:16 ET by GrannyGrump42The comic who opens for Craig Ferguson pointed out that what was "torture" at Abu Ghraib, they do for fun in San Francisco. So there's actually a triple-standard here.