Torture debate deserves broader context

A column written by copy editor Paul Clegg of The Sacramento Bee prompted a discussion in my news editing class about the word “torture.”

Clegg takes the position that news coverage of the torture issue has become sanitized and generic. In fact, the word “torture” for some time rarely got used in news stories. He cited several examples of language used by writers and editors to soften the word or to call what happened to people subjected to torture something else — most notably the word “abuse.”