Don't Support "24" (w/ poll)
Wed May 16, 2007 at 08:13:51 AM PDT
The Republican debate reminded the world again last night the way in which 24 has helped to poison the political culture of this country.
At one point, the candidates were asked how they'd respond to an absurd hypothetical situation striaght from the show. Tom Tancredo got the point (and the applause): "We need Jack Bauer," he said.
Jack Bauer is a torturer-- perhaps the most popular torturer in the history of American popular culturer. For details, you can check out this video or this article, both from Jane Mayer and The New Yorker.
In the article, Mayer relates this amazing anecdote:
U.S. Army Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, the dean of the United States Military Academy at West Point, flew to Southern California to meet with the creative team behind "24." Finnegan, who was accompanied by three of the most experienced military and F.B.I. interrogators in the country, arrived on the set as the crew was filming. At first, Finnegan—wearing an immaculate Army uniform, his chest covered in ribbons and medals—aroused confusion: he was taken for an actor and was asked by someone what time his "call" was.
In fact, Finnegan and the others had come to voice their concern that the show’s central political premise—that the letter of American law must be sacrificed for the country’s security—was having a toxic effect. In their view, the show promoted unethical and illegal behavior and had adversely affected the training and performance of real American soldiers. "I’d like them to stop," Finnegan said of the show’s producers. "They should do a show where torture backfires."
According to a Brigadier General in the US Army, "the show promoted unethical and illegal behavior and had adversely affected the training and performance of real American soldiers."
Can't you just watch Heroes instead?
