Where Did Your Information Come From?

According to the article “Waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud” Deroy Murdock, contributing editor to National Review Online, wrote an article stating that not only should American’s be proud of it but that:

Though clearly uncomfortable, waterboarding loosens lips without causing permanent physical injuries and unlikely even temporary ones.

But according to medical experts on the effect of torture, waterboarding results in both short and long-term negative consequences for mental and physical health including the possible risk of death.

Murdock tried to justify his reasoning in that:

Waterboarding makes tight-lipped terrorists talk. At least three major al-Qaeda leaders reportedly have been waterboarded...waterbarding is not used on American citizens...it is used on foreign Islamic-extremist terrorist, captured abroad, who would love nothing more than to blast innocent men, women and children into small, bloody pieces.

Murdock went on to state that “there is nothing repugnant about waterboarding.” But contrary to Murdock’s assertions the director of Program for Survivors of Torture said:

To think that abusive methods, including the enhanced interrogation techniques [waterboarding], are harmless psychological ploys is contradictory to well established medical knowledge and clinical experience...[including] panic attacks, depression and post traumatic stress disorder...There is a real risk of death from actual drowning or suffering a heart attack or damage to the lungs from inhalation of water.

Perhaps Murdock missed the memo about the whole death possibility, an actual occurrence in some cases, involved with waterboarding when he decided to release his opinions. I feel the fact that he wrote a column with such unfounded statements, which can easily be contradicted with the slightest bit of research, is a perfect example of the impact credibility has on a story. Reading his factual assertions that were proven to be false makes me as a reader highly cynical of anything else he has to say. If I were to come across another article written by him I wouldn’t waist my time reading it.