The "Jack Bauer" President (Craig Crawford)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10284912/#051227a

I have been watching dozens of back episodes of Fox Broadcasting's "24" over the holidays, and so far I haven't seen rogue U.S. anti-terrorism agent Jack Bauer stop once for a court warrant -- not even when he sawed off the head of an informant he was interrogating. Come to think of it, I haven't heard the Constitution mentioned a single time as Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, repeatedly breaks the rules to thwart terrorist plots.

This is how the President wants us to see the real world. Indeed, George Bush is the Jack Bauer of presidential power. There are no rules in Bush's world when it comes to the War on Terror -- only wimps like the whining bureaucrats on "24" balk at torture, spying, propaganda, whatever it takes.

I guess I am one of those constitutional wimps. Even the reality cop shows get me riled, as we watch the police routinely trample the individual rights of hapless suspects. Maybe we do live in a Jack Bauer world where constitutional liberties take a back seat to stopping killers. But I'd rather live in Patrick Henry's world: Give me liberty or give me death.

I wonder if Kiefer Sutherland is aware of the impression he is leaving on FAUX viewers.

I agree with Craig Crawford-give me liberty or give me death. Let's stick with the constitution. It has served this country fine for 200+ years. We don't need some punk ass faux cowboy changing it on us now.

incensed....I didn't realize HOW MUCH this movie depicted ALL that it does...and am sorry to realize it now.

I love this show.... It's very well done for the suspense and drama...but I'm wondering if it is something I want to keep watching.

Last season, "24" had Jack Bauer torturing someone at least once per episode. It got to be a running joke among my friends - who's gonna get tortured this week?

One GOOD thing I can say about "24" is that the geeks get a chance to be heroes too. Go Edgar and Chloe! :D

to _Bush's lust for terrible power at all cost. I have believed from the first time I saw it that Fox is consciously selling torture to the American public by doing it so frequently, having it done by the "patriot" Jack Bauer" so often, so matter of factly that it will desensitize the idiots among us completely, and reinforce their mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging belief that it simply is necessary, and that nothing else BUT torture will get you what you want from the "enemy." (They never show the "enemy" as being so terrified he/she will say absolutely anything to stop the pain.)

They always show the "enemy" as being fantastically tough and ruthless, and although Jack Bauer is also tough and ruthless, he's AMERICAN! He's not one of those sneaky brown people Fox loves to portray as the enemies of all good Americans.

REAL terrorist threats, a la the scripted plots, like, the bad guys about the detonate a nuke in Los Angeles. But I don't think Bush & co. give one crap about our safety as a people or our national security. I'm sure they're spying on their political and financial enemies, and god knows who they're torturing--probably people who can tie them to Saudi-OBL-9/11 money.

The script about the nuke in L.A. was a classic of the "does the end justify the means?" moral dilemma. It puts the president (generally a good guy) in the position of having to torture his best friend, whom he suspects of knowing about the nuke (with, of course, time being of the essence). I admired the way the script takes you along, right into that moral corner, where you don't see any way out. It could be taken as propaganda--and maybe it was meant to be (I don't really know)--to inure us to the idea of torture, and to plant the notion that it is sometimes "necessary." (--like the old pacifist dilemma--if you had a gun, and if you found yourself next to Adolf Hitler, would you shoot him?) (--tough one, for a pacifist.) Would you torture someone (your friend!) if you were convinced that something he knew could prevent 10 million people from being incinerated?

My own answer to this dilemma is that, yes, in that situation, I might do the violent thing (shoot Hitler, torture my best friend), but I would then, when the crisis was over, turn myself over to the criminal justice system, for judgment, and if I was found guilty of breaking the law, take the punishment. Thus, the unique or unusual emergency situation is addressed, at least on a personal level, and the law is respected. (--kind of like civil disobedience, except that CD eschews any violent action; I mean, in the public acceptance of legal consequences).

Jack Bauer isn't too much different than all sorts of previous characters in literature, film and TV, and in popular mythology--both good and bad (but all in the heroic mode)--who defy convention, despise bureaucracy, respond to things with real human feeling rather than adhering to rules and restrictions, have great physical courage, are exceedingly clever (I'm thinking of the prototype, Odysseus), and also have great stamina, and persistence, and their own ad hoc sense of honor and ethics. Bauer just has all this on speed. The pace of the show--from crisis to crisis--is quite amazing (and exhausting).

I, too, am a Constitutionalist, of the TRUE "strict constructionist" kind: don't mess with our civil and human rights. I cringe at the lack of due process in 24 Hours, and at the manipulations of the scriptwriters to make due process impossible. Threat after threat, all with time of the essence. Crisis after crisis. Secret government running it all. Keeping us stupid, peon citizens "safe."

It is, indeed, the ultimate cop show--where every rogue action and violation of peoples' rights is justified by the script, and the protagonist who would "terrorize" the terrorists with a beheading is considered an audacious hero--wild, out of control, but right on. It's also justified by his personal courage--his willingness to confront extremely dangerous situations on his own, and his reliance on his own wits.

I really don't think there is any comparison to Bush--who is a physical and moral coward, who relies on others to give him a grandiose idea of himself, and is a mean, egocentric bully, and a puppet, not at all intelligent and self-reliant.

I think 24 Hours is a young man's fantasy. And maybe it does no harm--and provides some kind of psychic release, for all the crap the Bushites try to fill peoples' heads with. Fears. Dreads. Threats to American manhood. Worry about loved ones in the dangerous, uncivil environment that our Corporate Rulers have created--destroying communities, and alienating people from each other. But it certainly does promote the notion of official vigilante-ism, without ever (or rarely) showing what such organizations and their rogue agents actually have done in the real world (assassinating the democratically elected leftist president of Chile, toppling the democratically elected president of Iran and installing the horrible Shah, running guns to people who were assassinating teachers and mayors in Nicaragua, instigating a war in Vietnam that ended with the slaughter of upwards of 2 million Southeast Asians, etc.).

It is not realistic. It is full of fear. It is suspenseful and entertaining, to some extent (although after a while, the endless crises get to be a drag). And it does contain some subliminal racist stuff. (I got real tired of the stupid blond wife and stupid blond daughter, ever in peril. Talk about stereotypes! I can't recall if they hit on Arabs. I don't think they do. The bad guys I recall are eastern Europeans, I think--and also several US double agents and Machiavellian types, one of which is the black president's black wife, a totally fascinating mix of good and evil, and a fabulous bit of acting. )

I like the 1st amendment as much as I do the 4th. I abhor censorship. I know that the 1st amendment is a bit problematic when it comes to corporate news and entertainment monopolies, especially in view of the clearly propagandistic function of their "news" departments. But I don't think the answer is to avoid their entertainments (if you enjoy them), or to organize boycotts of them (if you object to their content), or try to censor them. I strongly believe in the 1st amendment when it comes to artistic productions, even if they are corporate funded. (A secondary boycott, targeting the news departments, would be okay with me, though. These people have public responsibilities, having to do with use of our public airwaves, which should be enforced.)

However, I don't believe that their corporate political campaign contributions are "free speech," and I don't think corporations are entitled to "free speech" protections on false advertising. They are not human beings; they have no rights at all, as a matter of fact, and should be de-chartered, dismantled and their assets seized, if they are not serving the public interest. I would bust up their monopolies over news and entertainment, but I wouldn't censor individual works.

We can easily prosecute the fuck. So he better be judicious, and reserve that shit for situations of real need.

In my view, the show presents torture as a moral dilemma ... and in at least one case someone was tortured and she was quite innocent. (Oops.) Look, Jack is a nice guy who operates on a moral precipice ... and quite often steps over the edge. That is part of his appeal as a character, his tragic flaw ...

But ... it is one thing for field agents to break the rules and another for Presidents to endorse such action. The system of laws must ALWAYS prosecute those who do the wrong thing, even if the ends do justify the means. That means Jack should get a medal and prison time. The prison time is just one of those consequences of performing his duty, and a true warrior (like Jack) understands this and is willing to pay that, or even a higher price.

Often as not Jack Bauer has been betrayed by the government he works for. I thought President Palmer presented the kind of leader I'd like to see run this country. And for those who don't watch 24, Palmer was a black man. He certainly faced some very hard moral decisions both in his run for President and then as President. And he decided not to run for reelction because of the decisions he had to make. My favorite season was Season 2 when the terrorists were trying to set off a nuclear bomb in LA. And Palmer's VP and Chief of Staff had a coup to remove him from office.

Oh and being a female computer analyst who's a bit of a nerd - but who also knows how to shoot a gun - you can bet I cheered Chloe when she blew away the terrorist.

A local liberal writer, Tony Norman, wrote a column last year that perfectly reflected how I feel about 24.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05133/503763.stm

The politics of '24' are fine -- on TV
Friday, May 13, 2005

By Tony Norman

I hate watching television with my wife, especially when one of my favorite programs is on. Every now and then, she gets it in her head that being the source of argumentative chatter is good for our relationship. When one of my shows offends her finely tuned sense of reality, I'll hear about it.

Earlier this week, the espionage drama "24" really put a bee in her bonnet. After wandering into the living room, attracted by the sound of people shouting, threats and automatic gunshots in the recap from the previous week's episode, my wife settled into a permanently critical lotus position on the sofa. "Oh, come on," she said, apropos of nothing. "You're being manipulated. This show doesn't reflect your politics."

Well, no it doesn't, but if reflecting my politics were the sole criterion for settling down in front of my big screen at the end of a long day, what could I possibly watch in good conscience? But her point seemed to be that I was cheering for characters who, if anything, embodied George Bush's approach to terrorism in post-9/11 America. It was simply another opportunity to call me a hypocrite before the first commercial break.

Three episodes earlier, Kiefer Sutherland's character, Jack Bauer, the leader of a counter-terrorism unit, broke the fingers of an American citizen one-by-one in an attempt to ferret out information about a terror cell leader who stole a portion of the code that controls America's nuclear arsenal. She heard me cheering on that particular bit of barbarity despite having written many columns decrying the tortures at Abu Ghraib.