As some of you know I've been a big fan of the television show "24" and have written about it previously (http://kennethgdavenport.blogspot.com/2005/12/reality-tv.html). Last season, however, I began to notice a subtle political shift in the tone of the show, particularly embodied in the characters of Wayne Palmer's sister (working for an ACLU-type organization) and National Security Advisor Karen Hayes, whose moral prosteltyzing in the face of a nuclear attack seemed like a script written by Susan Sarandon. While Jack himself retained his resolve to protect America at all costs, those around him were clearly getting wobbly.
Now, we know why. The WSJ recounts today in an article how Fox is caving to pressure in attempting to make Jack more palatable to the Left. You can read the full article here at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120189888101136151.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone. Apparently, the program's willingness to show Jack doing whatever was necessary to protect and defend America -- including torture -- offends certain liberal sensibilities. David Danzig, director of the Primetime Torture Project (an effort to sanitize media sponsored by the New York-based Human Rights First) is quoted saying "24 is effectively an ad for torture. In almost every episode, the good guys use torture. And when they use torture, it almost always works." Of course, such statements reflect two core assumptions of the Left: 1). We aren't really in a war with enemies who routinely mutilate and behead their captives, and 2). torture never actually works in getting valuable, actionable information. How they actually know that torture doesn't work is beyond me -- but then again, the left never lets a few facts get in the way of their convictions.
At the core, it is really the Left's guilty conscience for our supposed misdeads in the war on terror at work here. This comes through pretty clearly in the outageous statements in the article made by the show's head writer, Howard Gordon:
"For five years, this was a wish fulfillment show," Mr. Gordon said. "At the beginning, when everybody's fear was more acute, people's tolerance for violence, their own rage, seemed to make Jack's tactics more acceptable. But in the wake of our own abuses in prosecuting this so-called War on Terror, we feel Jack is getting a bum rap."
In the wake of our "own abuses" prosecuting this "so-called" war on terror? Just what abuses are those? Outside of the rogue actions of a few enlisted personnel at Abu Graib, where is there proof that the US has sanctioned or conducted any form of abuse on detainees -- particularly of the type that Jack Bauer uses in the show? This is typical of the Left -- make statements to bolster your position without regard to the facts. "24" had been a show that understood that we face terrorists who are willing to do anything to destroy us -- and that Jack Bauer's actions, though extreme, were understandable with innocent lives hanging in the balance. For those of us who believe that this threat is still real and present, it was refreshing to have a show that understood that in this fight the means sometimes do justify the ends. What a pity that Jack Bauer has now wimped out.