A choice headline

If you think the news agencies are fully impartial, check out this headline: Yahoo! News – Bush Claimed Right to Waive Torture Laws. This headline is true on the surface. But, a headline that more accurately sums up the article would be “Bush agreed to follow torture laws”. Here’s the full quote from the memo:

“I accept the legal conclusion of the attorney general and the Department of Justice (news – web sites) that I have the authority under the Constitution to suspend Geneva as between the United States and Afghanistan, but I decline to exercise that authority at this time,” the president said in the memo, entitled “Humane Treatment of al-Qaida and Taliban Detainees.”

Readers of my blog (and folks who know me personally) know that I am not a supporter of this President or his Administration. However, I think that the headline chosen is sloppy reporting. With plenty of real failings in this administration, it seems silly to go and produce and article that mischaracterizes some documentation that clarifies the administration’s position on torture.