This letter is associated with the following article:
Letters
Friday, November 21, 2008 12:00 AM

The list of the governments that have persecuted journalists

The Washington Post hails those reporters who face grave danger from the Taliban and the governments of Cuba, Uganda, Zimbabwe and the U.S.

Read other letters about this article

  • Friday, November 21, 2008 01:46 PM

    @ehillesum

    I'm assuming that since you never attempted to address the way the Bush Administration has been treating journalists, and instead chose to write an utterly vacuous USA! USA! chant, is your way of saying you can't handle the notion being discussed here. That is your weakness, nobody else's.

    Mr. Greenwald, the notion that the persecution of journalists in the US (which at its most severe means forcing them to drink coffee from a diner rather than Starbucks) is comparable to persecution in Zimbabwe, etc., is not only ridiculous, it is offensive and, ultimately, a threat to Democracy.

    We imprisoned a journalist for no other reason but we didn't like what he was reporting, we held him for 6 years in Gitmo and tortured him, while occasionally bombing the media outlet he sometimes represents. But since you can't handle this fact, you instead need to believe we deprived him of his lattes. Good luck with that. Meanwhile, to those who occupy reality, it's hard not to see the direct comparison between the case of Sami Al-Haj and the cases in Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Cuba. To try and erase this comparison by using an entirely separate set of facts (just replace "torture" with "no lattes") isn't going to convince anyone who is sane.

    Why is it that liberals, who love nuanced John Kerrys and despise simplistic Sarah Palins, absolutely fail to take a nuanced approach when comparing the evil of the US government to the evil in other nations?

    So...what is that nuanced approach that compels us to imprison and torture journalists because they're saying things in the media that we don't like? I'm all ears.

Most Active Letters Threads

530

Do Obama officials know what his Afghanistan plan is?

What explains the completely contradictory statements from key aides on a central plank of the war strategy?
260

A new report questions "suicides" at Guantanamo

Why is the Obama DOJ attempting to block judicial review of three highly suspicious deaths?
224

I live in a van down by Duke University

How do I afford grad school without going into debt? A '94 Econoline, bulk food and creative civil disobedience
128

Is my kids making me not smart?

Stay-at-home fatherhood dulls my intellect to a nub. Excuse me while I ponder the subtext of "Hippos Go Berserk"
126

Trig, the anti-abortion straw baby

Sarah Palin's son is being used to demonize pro-choicers

View all »

Letters Help

Currently in Salon