Why is Seymour Hersh the only one talking about the Abu Ghraib tapes?

[Kid_A]

Given the fact that he's the only one talking about this, I can't help but feel a little suspicious. I know that the mainstream media in this country lost it's fangs years ago, but there are other reputable news organizations around the world that have a lot less to fear from this administration than any of the American outlets.

If Hersh is right in saying that videos from Abu Ghraib show young boys being sodomized by American guards, then isn't that something that people around the world, not just Americans, need to know? And wouldn't the BBC or some other media outlet grow some journalistic gonads and expose this to the world?

[truthspeaker]

1. The German press already reported many of the allegations.

You just don't hear about it.

[redqueen]

2. Has anyone received ANY response from their contact with the media?

I know I haven't. Not a word. Sometimes I get something, usually a feel-good 'we'll try to look into that' kind of thing... but nothing on this.

[bobbieinok]

3. there was a long DU thread on Norway's indignation

[bobbieinok]

4. DU thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=668288

[LittleApple81]

5. He said in the video that the media is a failure... and he has to

talk of people that want to remain anonymous. He said our culture has become one where people are afraid to become whistle blowers because of the consequences that befall them. Therefore, verification becomes difficult, especially for him at the New Yorker magazine because they have especially high standards for corroborated info.

but essentially, he said, we have a CORPORATE MEDIA. Enough said.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. Cause...

he's the only one with any balls left? :shrug:

[Tosca]

7. He's a journalist.

The last of a dying breed.

[DBoon]

8. In the Australian press recently

posted on DU yesterday I believe

[Fovea]

9. Why ignoring Abu Ghraib is a bad strategy for America

Everyone else in the world has absorbed this news in the past, other nations could watch America correct the worst mistakes of our foreign policy. But there is an urgency about this, and if we do not really address it, we will be seen as having changed in a fundamental way.

It will create a long term change in our relationships with other nations, opponents as well as allies. And ironically, it will occur at a time when the Saudi government will be needing our massive intervention to prevent civil war.

[The Night Owl]

10. In the interest of accuracy...

Did Seymour Hersh actually say that young boys in the Abu Ghraib prison were sodomized by Americans?

My understanding has been that the boys who were raped in the Abu Ghraib prison were raped by other inmates, but that guards let that rape go on.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. I believe Hersh said that it was Iraqi guards who raped a boy

and that US troops were present, looking on and video taping, and did nothing to intervene.

[The Night Owl]

13. As I thought.

Well, my feeling is that guards at Abu Ghraib who observed rape and did nothing to stop it were willing participants in the rape they observed, but we should still try to be absolutely accurate when talking about what happened in Abu Ghraib.

[playahata1]

12. because Hersh, unlike mainstream journalists,

is not a WHORE. He will not be bought or sold.