It's sad that the U.S. military and the government can't get a grip of reality that "24" is just a show!US military tells Jack Bauer: Cut out the torture scenes ... or else!
In the hugely popular television series 24, federal agent Jack Bauer always gets his man, even if he has to play a little rough. Suffocating, electrocuting or drugging a suspect are all in a day's work. As Bauer - played by the Emmy Award winner Kiefer Sutherland - tells one baddie: " You are going to tell me what I want to know - it's just a matter of how much you want it to hurt."
But while 24 draws millions of viewers, it appears some people are becoming a little squeamish. The US military has appealed to the producers of 24 to tone down the torture scenes because of the impact they are having both on troops in the field and America's reputation abroad. Forget about Abu Ghraib, forget about Guantanamo Bay, forget even that the White House has authorised interrogation techniques that some classify as torture, that damned Jack Bauer is giving us a bad name.
The United States Military Academy at West Point yesterday confirmed that Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan recently travelled to California to meet producers of the show, broadcast on the Fox channel. He told them that promoting illegal behaviour in the series - apparently hugely popular among the US military - was having a damaging effect on young troops.
According to the New Yorker magazine, Gen Finnegan, who teaches a course on the laws of war, said of the producers: "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 show, first broadcast in November 2001, is produced by Joel Surnow, whose California office reportedly contains a Stars and Stripes that once flew over Baghdad. Mr Surnow boasts that both the military and the Bush administration are fans of his series and insists that 24 is "patriotic".
Wayne Smith, of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), an international human rights group, said: "Even the FBI has confirmed executive orders authorising the use of hoods and dogs and stress positions.
"If [these things] were being done to US troops we would call it torture."
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4 comments:
I have never watched this program, but I would hope that most people watching it realize it is a program, so we don't need the government stepping in. Maybe they will have to put a disclaimer at the beginning of the program informing whomever watches it that it is a television program. Whomever being citizens as well as government. yikes!
Chicago Native:
There is a disclaimer at the beginning of the show but the gov't won't say that. It says: Viewers discretion is advised. So, the viewer are aware that there will be violence on that show. The bottom line is that the gov't is scare as shit of the T.V. show because it is very close to reality of our government and about terrorism. But, of courae, it is show and producer are not involved in the political aspects. I have been watching the show since it first aired and own a DVD set of the 1 year of the show. The gov't has nothing better else to do. The show "Alias" is far more violent than "24." Gov't never stepped into that show. "24" is getting popular and the gov't doesn't like it.
And this is a real treat, get your barf bag ready:
The GOP Frontrunner:
GOP at it's best?
LMAO! Ewww.. Guilani in drag look more like a butch. And for Trump to be near his neck and fake breast. Blech! Gave me chills. I need to wash my hands with Purell!
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