Apparently Defensive

This morning Scott Simon mentions the US Army's investigation into at least 5 of its soldiers on charges of rape and murder in Iraq by saying that the soldiers are "apparently accused." It seems Simon is trying so hard to hold any allegations of US wrongdoing to the most rigorous standards of proof that he can't even say the fact that they are accused. I realize this was probably a slip and he meant to say that the accused men are alleged to have committed the crimes in question. This is typical of NPR's defensive coverage of US and ally crimes and wrongdoing, and stands in stark contrast to the unqualified reporting of so many "militants," "insurgents," "terrorists," or "Taliban" killed that occurs daily on NPR (the information almost always solely based on US military reports). I almost never hear them say "alleged" militants or "alleged" Taliban fighters. Of course, as the record often reveals (usually weeks or months later), these supposed combatants are often civilians mistakenly (or not mistakenly) targeted.