PBC News & Comment: ZD 30–Infomercial for Torture, CIA

by Peter B. Collins on January 14, 2013

Hollywood often rewrites history, but Zero Dark 30 qualifies as propaganda, hardening unproven myths about torture and fault-free CIA….ZD30 was #1 at the box office over the weekend.  PBC was one of those ticket buyers, and defends the First Amendment rights of the filmmakers.  CIA collaborated with the movie’s producers, and got a re-write that strongly implies that torture is OK and that it works, and makes the spy agency and its spooks seem righteous.  The pro-torture theme sets up the action sequence of the Abottobad raid of May, 2011 and leaves the uninformed viewer with a skewed, dangerous view of failed policy and morality.

–Obama, in a rare press conference, says he won’t let radical Republicans hold him hostage with the debt ceiling increase.  PBC talks about the trillion-dollar-coin idea, the debate over new gun regulation, and the administration’s plan for immigration reform

–Robert Reich and NY Times Sunday editorial get it right: “entitlement reform” won’t reduce the deficit, and breaks contracts with retirees

–France launches a new war in Mali

–Part of California’s recent Prop. 35 put on hold by a judge

–the suicide of web genius Aaron Swartz is blamed on aggressive prosection of a “crime with no victims”

–Clarence Thomas breaks 7-year silence on Supreme Court bench

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