A ‘24′ 180
Feb 27th, 2007 at 4:18 pm by Dr. S
What happens to Laura Ingraham’s idiotic argument that the American people voice their support of torture by watching “24″ when the show’s star does this?
Kiefer Sutherland, the star of the hit TV show ‘24′, has been invited by the US army to discuss why it is wrong to torture prisoners.
Sutherland plays agent Jack Bauer in the series and agreed to talk to cadets at the West Point military academy in New York State after army chiefs claimed that the show’s torture scenes were influencing new recruits, reports contactmusic.com.
Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan even visited the sets of the show to plead with the makers to cut down on the torture scenes.
Finnegan said: ‘I’d like them to stop. They should do a show where torture backfires. The kids see it and say, ‘If torture is wrong, what about ‘24′?’ The disturbing thing is that although torture may cause Jack Bauer some angst, it is always the patriotic thing to do.’
Could it be that Jack Bauer is emboldening the enemy? Someone tell Five-Deferment Dick and Carlton Sherwood. It’s time to Swift Boat this terrorist-loving America hater.
[...] Army has invited Kiefer Sutherland, star of the hit TV show 24 and opponent of torture, to come and discuss why it is wrong to torture prisoners. Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan also recently pleaded with the makers of the show to cut down [...]
It’s just a TV show - suggest you take your meds and relax.
Just stop watching TV. Can we not understand the difference between the real world and a play, a moving picture?
“West Point military academy”? It’s actually called the United States Military Academy, dimwits. Other than the four or five cadets in the Corps of Cadets who adhere to the religious cult calling itself the Democrat party, no one at West Point is influenced by the fiction of “24″ or any other television show.
Give it a break…..and what about the “Duke”. Should our kids go out and start shooting “native americans”? What about his dad? Should Dr’s. and nurse’s start drinking and copulating when doing surgery? ITS TELEVISION….Can you spell television?
So “24″ has no influence, huh?
Just so we’re clear, I’m not advocating censorship or cancellation of the show. But I’ll say the same thing that I say when fundies complain that sex on TV is corrupting their children: Be parents. Provide guidance. The military shouldn’t have to rely on a friggin’ actor to tell soldiers, cadets, etc. what their superior officers and civilian leadership should be telling them: that torturing detainees is morally wrong, doesn’t provide useful information and ultimately puts American troops in danger. But when the Bush administration declared the Geneva Conventions “quaint” and “obsolete,” it failed to provide guidance about what is and isn’t acceptable behavior. So the troops got their cues wherever they could get them, much like children whose parents won’t teach them about sex. And, like with those unguided children, much of the information they got turned out to be wrong.
As for your complaint about “West Point military academy,” note that in the source article, the words “military” and “academy” are lower case, indicating that they are not part of the formal title of the academy. So the original article didn’t get the formal name of the institution wrong, it just didn’t use it. If you’d like to debate this irrelevant point further, feel free to contact the Indo-Asian News Service.
I love this show!! I await each show breathlessly, and at each show end, am aware that the next show is 167 hours away. So I am not this liberal weenie who objects to the show.
But the General has it right, I think, by noting that 24 normalizes torture, which according to all of the international conventions is illegal and immoral. To the extent that we in the US regard torture as an acceptable means to an end, we have to remember that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander, and our acceptance of torture as a legitmate tool means that others can use it too, and against us. I am guessing that that is part of what the general has in mind.
As blood and guts mayhem oriented videogames demonstrably desnsitize players to violence, so does repeated graphic and sympathetic portrayals of torture normalize torture.
As I watch 24, I am reminded that this is Dick Cheney’s favorite show, which is reason enough to give me pause to consider why, and what values it endorses, like torture being an acceptable tool of war. It is not, and 24 ought to back off.
[...] série 24, à la rencontre des producteurs de la série la plus controversée, afin de les alerter sur les dangers des méthodes de l’agent Jack Bauer : Finnegan said: ‘I’d like them to stop. They [...]