The Inauguration of Double Standard Media Watch
Press Action
Saturday, January 22, 2005
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/apabughraib01222005/
In a Jan. 20 story about Bush’s inauguration, AP reporters Genaro C. Armas and Libby Quaid made note of a soldier named Aidan Delgado who was having second thoughts about his time spent in Iraq and was voicing his concerns during a demonstration against the U.S. war. The authors wrote:
Aidan Delgado, 23, of Sarasota, Fla., returned to the United States last April after his military service. He said he was a mechanic at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, which gained notoriety as a place of torture during Saddam Hussein’s rule and was the scene of alleged prisoner abuse by U.S. troops.
When the prison is run by Saddam’s henchmen, Abu Ghraib is a place of “torture.” When the prison is operated by U.S. henchmen, it’s the scene of “alleged prisoner abuse.” One wonders if reporters Armas and Quaid included these descriptions when they filed their story or if their editor at AP inserted the double-standard-laden clause describing why Abu Ghraib had gained notoriety.
Furthermore, a U.S. soldier has been convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for his conduct at Abu Ghraib. Isn’t that enough evidence, even for AP, to cease using the “alleged” qualifier?