Wednesday, March 7, 2007

24 is just a TV show - redux

I’ve done a couple of posts about the TV show “24,” and how the right has mistakenly interpreted it as an endorsement of the Bush administration’s least defensible policies. As it turns out, I might have been a little hasty.

Jane Mayer has a fascinating piece
in the latest issue of The New Yorker about the politics of “24″ and its creator, Joel Surnow, who, I was surprised to learn, describes himself as a “right-wing nut job.” For reasons I’ve already described, some of the arguments conservatives find support for are misplaced, but in at least one key area, “24″ is, rather intentionally, making an argument sympathetic to Bush and his backers. The issue, of course, is torture.

The grossly graphic torture scenes in Fox’s highly rated series “24″ are encouraging abuses in Iraq, a brigadier general and three top military and FBI interrogators claim.


My response:

“24” is just a television show. People should keep this in mind when watching it. While this show may portray some Americans views on politics and other issues, its torture scenes should not be taken seriously because it is just fiction. Military personnel cannot take this as a guide on how to interrogate people. What happens in television shows is not applicable to real life. While the military does deal with interrogation, it cannot apply what they have seen on “24” to their interrogations, even though it appears that some people do. People do not take other televisions shows, like “Desperate Housewives” as a guide to life and they should not take “24” as guide to anything either. The torture scenes, just like the rest of the show, are there to provide entertainment.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Do you think that the pop culture-depiction of the show's torture scenes may strike a nerve b/c of their link to current events?