24 Influences the Military?
Read this interesting article about how the TV show 24 is influencing the military’s torture tactics:
After interrogators began torturing Iraqi prisoners using methods they saw on Fox TV’s popular "24", Army’s Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan warned the show’s producers "24" is negatively impacting the training and performance of American troops.
Finnegan, dean of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, accompanied by veteran military and FBI interrogators, met with "24’s" creative team in Southern California last November to tell them "I’d like them to stop. They should do a show where torture backfires," according to an article in the Feb. 19-26 issue of The New Yorker by Jane Mayer. "24" is said to have a weekly audience of 15-million viewers and reaches millions more through DVD sales.
The general, who said "24" is popular with his students, told Mayer, "The kids see it, and say, ‘If torture is wrong, what about ‘24′?"
Finnegan also told the producers their suggestion the U.S. perpetrates torture is hurting America’s image internationally.
The Fox show producers retorted they are careful not to glamorize torture and said their fictional "Counter Terrorist Unit" agent Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, never enjoys inflicting pain. Finnegan and his experts disagreed, stating Bauer remains coolly rational after committing barbarous acts, including the decapitation of a state’s witness with a hacksaw, Mayer reported.
Tony Lagouranis, a former Army interrogator in Iraq and one of the meeting’s participants, told the show’s staff "24’s" DVDs are circulated widely in Iraq. Lagouranis told Mayer, "People watch the shows, and then walk into the interrogation booths and do the same things they’ve just seen." Read the rest of the article here
Tags: 24, torture, interrogation, iraq, army
2 opinions for 24 Influences the Military?
the other aaron
Feb 28, 2007 at 9:10 am
Aren’t the torture scenes the best though? Those are the ones everyone talks about. I guess thats a bad sign about the general public.
Sergeant S.W. Foster
Mar 19, 2007 at 2:32 pm
I can assure you that any military member who is of high enough rank to be in charge of such matters knows the difference between Hollywood entertainment and real life & war.
Sergeant S.W. Foster
US Army
http://www.DesertVets.org
http://www.IraqfromtheWindow.com
http://www.SgtScorpion
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