I love you, NPR, but you're getting me down

As an NPR fan, this is just acutely disappointing to me. Ombudsman Alicia Shepard explains why NPR do not use the word 'torture' to describe waterboarding:

But no matter how many distinguished groups -- the International Red Cross, the U.N. High Commissioners -- say waterboarding is torture, there are responsible people who say it is not. Former President Bush, former Vice President Cheney, their staff and their supporters obviously believed that waterboarding terrorism suspects was necessary to protect the nation's security.

It's nice that some good criticism of NPR is coming from another NPR show, the excellent and entertaining "On The Media":

BOB GARFIELD: NPR certainly has no difficulty calling murder “murder.” It doesn't call it “enhanced argumentation technique.” The terrorists call themselves “freedom fighters” but NPR calls acts of terror “acts of terror.”

ALICIA SHEPARD: Right.

BOB GARFIELD: In other respects, NPR hasn't taken a position against, you know, nouns. Why this one, in particular?

ALICIA SHEPARD: I think because it is a hotly debated topic...

In fact, Shepard has gone on three NPR-affiliated shows to explain herself -- OTM, Talk of the Nation, and Patt Morrison's show on KPCC. Even though I think she was not treated with kid glove on those shows, it does raise the question: why has she not yet gotten around to facing her most scathing critic, Glenn Greenwald?