Is Jack Bauer bad for us?
Here is an interesting- and thoughtful, though well-spun- liberal critique of one of my favorite television shoes, "24," from The New Yorker.
Many of the points it makes about the torture in which Jack Bauer seems to engage every week are valid: in real life, torture doesn't work (it only elicits information corresponding to what the victim perceives that the torturer wants to hear, whether true or not)- and other interrogation techniques (which unfortunately take too much time to fit into the show's fast-paced, race-against-the-clock premise) are far more effective. And the tactics he uses (and legitimizes) are quite rightly the subject of soul-searching and debate among thoughtful "24" fans of all political stripes.
Still, do you remember seeing many articles like this about the blatant liberal Democratic slant of "The West Wing?"
The current plotline (as, in fairness, the article points out) involves a nefarious hard line advisor to President Palmer trying to strong arm through some constitutionally dubious legislation which the "good guys" oppose; one sympathetically portrayed presidential advisor- LA CTU chief Buchanan's wife, no less, who took the civil libertarian point of view- has already been blackmailed by the hard line creep into resigning. And Barbara Streissand, Bill Clinton and Stephen King are all big "24" fans despite their reservations about certain aspects of the plot line. Certainly 24 is a much more ideologically balanced show than, say... well, "The West Wing."
But despite its liberal spin (its description of ABC's "The Path to 9/11," for example, ignores the fact that while dialog was invented to depict attitudes evidence says President Clinton and members of his administration actually held, its content was factual, not fictional), the article raises important issues that need to be discussed- not only about Jack Bauer's behavior, but about the effect the show may have on the sensibilites of the American public and even some segments of the American military.
Many of the points it makes about the torture in which Jack Bauer seems to engage every week are valid: in real life, torture doesn't work (it only elicits information corresponding to what the victim perceives that the torturer wants to hear, whether true or not)- and other interrogation techniques (which unfortunately take too much time to fit into the show's fast-paced, race-against-the-clock premise) are far more effective. And the tactics he uses (and legitimizes) are quite rightly the subject of soul-searching and debate among thoughtful "24" fans of all political stripes.
Still, do you remember seeing many articles like this about the blatant liberal Democratic slant of "The West Wing?"
The current plotline (as, in fairness, the article points out) involves a nefarious hard line advisor to President Palmer trying to strong arm through some constitutionally dubious legislation which the "good guys" oppose; one sympathetically portrayed presidential advisor- LA CTU chief Buchanan's wife, no less, who took the civil libertarian point of view- has already been blackmailed by the hard line creep into resigning. And Barbara Streissand, Bill Clinton and Stephen King are all big "24" fans despite their reservations about certain aspects of the plot line. Certainly 24 is a much more ideologically balanced show than, say... well, "The West Wing."
But despite its liberal spin (its description of ABC's "The Path to 9/11," for example, ignores the fact that while dialog was invented to depict attitudes evidence says President Clinton and members of his administration actually held, its content was factual, not fictional), the article raises important issues that need to be discussed- not only about Jack Bauer's behavior, but about the effect the show may have on the sensibilites of the American public and even some segments of the American military.
Comments
I watch "24" as a comedy as much as I do a drama - don't ever tell bauer, "Jack, ya gotta learn to relax!" you'll be seeing stars in seconds!
The article addresses the failure of torture as an interrogation tool in Iraq.