Re: [Osx-nutters] The New Yorker :WHATEVER IT TAKES The politics of the man behind “24.”

[Patrick Coskren]

On Feb 16, 2007, at 2:34 PM, Kevin Callahan wrote:
>
> <http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070219fa_fact_mayer>
>
> “People in the Administration love the series, too,” he said. “It’s  
> a patriotic show. They should love it.”

You know, I've got mixed feelings about 24.  On the one hand, it  
clearly misportrays the effectiveness of torture, among other things,  
and apparently there are people in the military who get all pumped  
and think the real world works like Jack Bauer.  In that sense, it's  
reprehensible.

On the other hand, it's basically a comic book of a show, and I have  
to admit I love it the same way I love blowing the living crap out of  
people in first person shooters.  Total violent fantasy.  Blaming 24  
for torture is a little like blaming Dirty Harry for trigger-happy cops.

What bugs me is the people who think Jack Bauer's real.  He's a  
fucking super hero.  CTU's about as realistic as the Justice League  
of America.  But there are influential people in this country,  
probably in this government, who think everything would be great if  
we just let our national security agents act more like Bauer.

I really liked the idea in the story about having Keifer Sutherland  
and his coworkers do an army training video basically saying, "Hi, in  
case you didn't notice, we're ACTORS.  This stuff we do on TV works  
about as well as Warp Drive, and should be deployed accordingly."   
The phrasing was weird, though, it wasn't clear to me if it ever went  
ahead.

-Patrick