I was teaching a class on news reporting in 2002 when the Bush administration opened the prison at Guantánamo Bay and ruled that prisoners there would be designated enemy combatants. I asked my students if they knew what that implied. They weren't a particularly well-informed group, but they understood the new designation perfectly. Prisoners of war can't be tortured; there are laws about that. But enemy combatants can. And in the aftermath of 9/11, with jingoistic war cries filling the air, just about every student in the room thought torture was fine. Serious debate on torture had to wait until the media were willing to use the word — which to this day, many... More >>>