These "waterboarding shows" are outrages - even Keith Olbermann is falling for them. Anyone who does not object with fury to these "shows" is, frankly, is part of the big media/entertainment lie that is going on. More below.
Recently, Huffington Post linked to a Playboy.com video of a reporter for said website undergoing waterboarding.
Yesterday, Keith Olbermann had this to say about Sean Hannity seemingly accepting a waterboarding session as a charity benefit:
"Olbermann laid out his offer: "For every second you last, a thousand dollars -- live or on tape, provided other networks' cameras are there. A thousand dollars a second, Sean, because this is no game. This is serious stuff. Put your money where your mouth is, and your nose. Oh, and I'll double it when you admit you feared for your life, when you admit the horrible truth -- waterboarding, the symbol of the last administration, is torture."
HERE is the single flaw to these "waterboarding shows". In the Playboy example, the reporter was given a way out - pieces of metal held in his hand that, when he dropped them onto the concrete floor - made a loud noise, signaling he had had enough waterboarding and wanted it to stop. I'm sure, Hannity would be extended the same "courtesy".
My contention in calling BS on these "waterboarding shows" - if you go into it, knowing that it will stop when you want it to stop - it's not waterboarding. It's not torture. It's not the same. Period. It's BS.
My suggestion to Olbermann is to recind the charity offer, because waterboarding, as Hannity would experience it, is NOT torture, because it has a safety valve that the detainees did not enjoy.
If Hannity wants to truly undergo waterboarding as we imagine it was authentically performed, the waterboarding team does not stop when Hannity requests. They continue. The Playboy reporter thought he could last 15-20 seconds. He lasted 5 before pure panic and fear overrode his willpower.
Go ahead, waterboard Hannity. But do it for the full 20 seconds or more. Certainly go beyond his request to stop. But don't let him know that. Truly, put him in the position of a detainee under hostile conditions, and see how he fares after they go WELL BEYOND his threshold, not simply up to it, as the Playboy reporter allowed.
Otherwise, the entire argument, the entire display, is only more "entertainment" for ratings. It's more manipulation. It's more BS. And quite rightly, as Olbermann said, "this is serious stuff".
Let's treat it as such.