# New Yorker tears Thiessen apart **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 25, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-tears-thiessen-apart/533751 "2010-03-25T15:43:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-tears-thiessen-apart/533751/1 "2010-03-25T15:43:03Z")
Marc Thiessen, who was recently torn to shreds by [Jon Stewart](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=555300&highlight=thiessen) – has now been savaged again, by [_The New Yorker_](http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/03/29/100329crbo_books_mayer), in its review of Thiessen’s book, which it labels “the unofficial Bible of torture apologists.” Here are just some small excerpts. You really have to read the whole thing – > [@](#): > > Yet Thiessen is better at conveying fear than at relaying the facts. His account of the foiled Heathrow plot, for example, is “completely and utterly wrong,” according to Peter Clarke, who was the head of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorism branch in 2006. > [@](#): > > Tellingly, Thiessen does not address the many false confessions given by detainees under torturous pressure, some of which have led the U.S. tragically astray. > [@](#): > > Perhaps the most outlandish falsehood in “Courting Disaster” is Thiessen’s portrayal of Obama and the Democrats as the sole opponents of brutal interrogation tactics. Thiessen presents the termination of the C.I.A. program as a renegade action by President Obama, who has “eliminated our nation’s most important tool to prevent terrorists from striking America.” Yet Thiessen knows that waterboarding and other human-rights abuses, such as dispatching prisoners into secret indefinite detention, were abandoned by the Bush Administration: **he wrote the very speech announcing, in 2006, that the Administration was suspending their use**. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-tears-thiessen-apart/533751/2 "2010-04-05T19:52:38Z")
[Here](http://mediamatters.org/research/201004020037) is a rather staggering list of falsehoods compiled in Thiessen’s book. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-tears-thiessen-apart/533751/3 "2010-04-05T20:27:04Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > [Here](http://mediamatters.org/research/201004020037) is a rather staggering list of falsehoods compiled in Thiessen’s book. Sounds like Thiessen should be fired from any reputable news organization. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-tears-thiessen-apart/533751/4 "2010-04-06T01:53:55Z")
What is the debate? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-tears-thiessen-apart/533751/5 "2010-04-06T04:07:49Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > What is the debate? Should he be mocked and derided 24/7, or just during daylight hours? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-tears-thiessen-apart/533751/6 "2010-04-06T04:08:52Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Should he be mocked and derided 24/7, or just during daylight hours? I’m willing to take the night shift. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-tears-thiessen-apart/533751/7 "2010-04-06T04:50:19Z")
Sign me up for morning shift, Eurocentral time. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-tears-thiessen-apart/533751/8 "2010-04-06T04:51:18Z")
I thought this thread was about Tiffani-Amber Thiessen until I read it (I know of Marc Thiessens work, but just barely). Another saved by the bell character meets her doom. On another unrelated note I’m shocked that a republican would lie incessantly. This is unprecedented. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-tears-thiessen-apart/533751/9 "2010-04-06T05:03:31Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Sounds like Thiessen should be fired from any reputable news organization. Luckily for him, he works for the Washington Post.