Several decades ago, “controversial” subjects in news media included
many issues that are now well beyond controversy. During the first
half of the 1960s, fierce arguments raged in print and on the
airwaves about questions like: Does a black person (a “Negro,” in the
language of the day) have the right to sit at a lunch counter, or
stay at a hotel, the same way that a white person does? Should the
federal government insist on upholding such rights all over the
country?
Some agonizing disputes, in the media and on the ground, came to a
climax with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Suddenly, after
many decades of struggles against Jim Crow, federal law explicitly
barred racial discrimination in public accommodations and employment.
After President Lyndon Johnson signed the measure, saying “Let us
close the springs of racial poison,” controversy faded about access
to restaurants and hotels.
But the need for civil rights protests continued, and for a time they
increasingly focused on the right to vote. Banning poll taxes,
literacy tests and other timeworn devices of discrimination that were
routine in the South, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 followed. White
supremacists howled about states’ rights, but the law took hold.
Meanwhile, housing remained an aspect of society replete with
flagrant bias. And “fair housing” became a new benchmark for progress
in the sights of civil rights activists. The forces of bigotry were
sometimes overt but often used coded language. During a gubernatorial
campaign in Maryland, a leading candidate pandered to white racism by
adopting the slogan “A man’s home is his castle.” But for the
backlash forces, the last-ditch arguments and slogans failed. In
April 1968, President Johnson signed a bill that prohibited racial
discrimination in rentals and sales of housing units.
Looking back on the 1960s, it’s notable that the wisdom of those
civil rights laws is now accepted by almost the entire political
spectrum. “Controversial” issues became non-controversial when
advocates of human-rights positions were able to get appropriate
measures enacted into law.
In a sense, for human rights, we can gauge the progress of our
society by assessing what has been settled and what is in open
dispute.
So, today, what are we to make of the fact that torture is
controversial?
In late September, there were new reports that U.S. soldiers have
engaged in extreme abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Sen. John McCain
responded by voicing support for a Senate measure that would require
the American military to adhere to the Geneva Convention’s
prohibitions on torture.
Sadly, rather than just taking a moral position, McCain felt the need
to point out that torture means bad public relations for Uncle Sam:
“We’ve got to have it stopped. It is hurting America’s image abroad.”
Obviously, even when McCain offers pragmatic arguments for why U.S.
military forces shouldn’t be torturing people, the anti-torture
amendment is a tough sell in American politics today. “Told that the
White House was opposed to such an amendment and that the president
might veto the bill if the amendment were included, McCain said he
was unsure whether there were enough votes in the Senate to override
it,” the Los Angeles Times reported on Sept. 26.
Torture. Controversial. In 2005 -- not 1505, 1705 or 1905 -- in the
21st century, in a country that claims to be at the world’s vanguard
of democracy and human rights.
Trying to gain political leverage for his, uh, controversial position
against torture, McCain was strategic during a Sept. 25 appearance on
ABC’s “This Week” program. Speaking of the Bush administration, he
said: “I hope that they will understand why we’re trying to do this
and why it’s so important to America’s image in the world.”
Similar arguments were made more than 40 years ago, when fire hoses
and police dogs were pointed and unleashed at young civil rights
demonstrators. And it was true: the vicious actions of a white
supremacist power structure did make the United States look bad in
the world. But that argument was far from the most compelling reasons
to support civil rights for all Americans.
Should the U.S. military be engaging in torture? Evidently, such
questions are now controversial. That should tell us something about
the news media’s current political climate in the United States of
America.
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards
justice,” Martin Luther King Jr. said. But sometimes, the media
framing of a controversy indicates that the arc has been thrown into
reverse.
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Norman Solomon is the author of the new book “War Made Easy: How
Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” For information, go to:
www.WarMadeEasy.com