The story of a long, slow scandal

In the Columbia Journalism Review, Eric Umansky tells the story of the news media’s fitful coverage of the abuse and torture of U.S. detainees. Among other landmarks, he notes Charles Hanley’s November 2003 story for The Associated Press, for which Hanley interviewed six released Abu Ghraib detainees who gave credible accounts of “humiliation and abuse.” Umansky writes:

Hanley’s story garnered almost no notice when it appeared in November 2003, except overseas. The most prominent attention, Hanley recalls, was in Stern, the German weekly. “After I published,” he says, “I assumed other people would follow up. That’s what really surprised me.”

For his CJR story, Umansky spoke with a number of reporters who have covered this beat. Jane Mayer, of the New Yorker, told Umansky: “Journalists will do incredible work and it just drops into a great black void.”