Historicizing Winston Churchill in a media age

An interesting roundabout historical debate has emerged in the political media over the last couple of weeks between, among others, two media ideology prize fighters, Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann. The tete a tete, began with a segment O'Reilly ran on his show May 8, 2009 in response to an answer to a question offered by President Barack Obama in his April 29, 2009 press conference. Obama was asked by ABC News' Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper if previous U. S. administrations had sanctioned torture. In President Obama's response, he mentioned Winston Churchill reactions to questions of torture during World War II.

from the news conference
"I was struck by an article that I was reading the other day talking about the fact that the British during World War II, when London was being bombed to smithereens, had 200 or so detainees. And Churchill said, 'We don't torture,' when the entire British -- all of the British people were being subjected to unimaginable risk and threat. And -- and -- and the reason was that Churchill understood you start taking shortcuts, and over time, that corrodes what's -- what's best in people."

Video of Obama's response to Tapper's question



Another interesting presentation of this media clip is available from a New York Times interactive feature on the April 29, 2009 press conference. Search "Churchill" in the search box underneath the feature title "Analyzing Obama’s 100th-Day Briefing" and then click the segment on the bar below the search box with the two blue lines.

O'Reilly took Obama to task for this claim on his May 8 show arguing that Churchill tacitly approved torture and other aggressive military activities used by the British during World war II. O'Reilly's main claims were as follows.

"Churchill wanted to use poison gas on the Germans in violation of the Geneva Convention but was stopped by the British War Cabinet."

"The Royal Air Force killed hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of civilians by targeting non-military sites."

"And the British operated a number of interrogation centers during and after World War II, including one called the London Cage, where German prisoners were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with death."

Transcript of the O'Reilly show here
Video below


In response, Keith Olbermann called O'Reilly to task for play fast with this history.
Video here

This is a long segment, but interesting in many ways. The "history" here is mostly focused on the question of whether the British government engaged in torture during World War II. Some secondary sources that help fill in the context are available from NPR, Jonah Goldberg writing for the Tribune News, , and a History News Network roundup of stories on the topic.

A modicum of consensus seems to be emerging that President Obama overstepped history when he inferred that the British did not torture during World War II, and herein lies the real history lesson of this episode. History is interpretation and subject to much deviation even within seemingly straightforward claims. Although President Obama only repeated Churchill's quote "We don't torture," his trailing words left an unmistakable inference about British policy and action during World War II. President Obama followed that Churchill quote that "we don't torture" by saying "when the entire British -- all of the British people were being subjected to unimaginable risk and threat....the reason was that Churchill understood you start taking shortcuts, and over time, that corrodes...what's best in people." The inference here is that the British did not take "shortcuts" or torture even under the greatest of strains, think 9/11.

What is missing in the political media (with the possible exception of NPR) is a careful consideration of the history of this story, detached from the current political context. Such a consideration might better inform a return to some political context. In other words, do the history sans the politics, then consider the politics. Such a consideration might lead one to believe that Obama misspoke, and more importantly that all events in the past should be historicized or understood as historical events not necessarily used in current political contexts. President Obama seems to have de-historicized British actions in World War II for political gain and the political media has taken the bait.