DownWithTyranny!: Real Americans love torture 'cause it's not just manly, it's FUN -- just ask Jack Bauer
Real Americans love torture 'cause it's not just manly, it's FUN -- just ask Jack Bauer>
In the end there was one band of terrorists even torture couldn't help Jack Bauer wipe out: ax-wielding network programmers.
"Sometimes, it seems, the drama of torture is too great to resist; even when producers know how dangerous and damaging it is in the real world."
-- NPR's Eric Deggans, this morning on Morning Edition
"There's just one problem with these scenes, according to former FBI agent and interrogation expert Joe Navarro: 'None of it works,' he says. 'I've done thousands of interviews, and I can tell you, none of [the TV torture stuff] works.' "
-- from Eric Deggans's report
by Ken
This morning on the radio the talking heads were excited by a brand-new idea that apparently just came into their heads: that the popularity of torture among Americans might have something to do with slimy, imbecilic, fraudulent fictions like Fox's appalling 24, which routinely portray it as just the ticket for extracting important information from dastards, and is a hoot-and-a-half besides. So the question was on the table: Could these orgies of lying scumbaggery really have something to do with the wide-eyed, real-manly Americans' resounding approval of torture -- and the more tortury, the more soul-satisfying?
Give it up, dastard!
Interestingly, Homeland, which comes from some of the same brains as 24 but is a vastly superior production, comes out better in Eric D's report.
Even If Torture Doesn't Work In The Real World, TV Has Us Convinced It Does
December 12, 2014 5:01 AM ET
Listen to the story
As the CIA and Senate Intelligence Committee clash over whether so-called enhanced interrogation techniques are considered torture, another question arises: Have depictions of torture on TV and film helped convince us that it works?
Consider this warning that recently greeted viewers of ABC's political soap opera, Scandal:
"The following drama contains adult content. Viewer discretion is advised."
That label was slapped on the episode because of scenes like the moment when trained torturer Huck prepared to ply his trade on colleague (and soon-to-be girlfriend) Quinn Perkins.
"Normally, I'd start with the drill or a scalpel,[/img]
Scenes like that have become a regular part of some popular TV shows and movies. People may disagree in real life, but in Hollywood, torture works.
From Kiefer Sutherland as hard-nosed government agent Jack Bauer on Fox's 24, growling this threat to a bad guy: "You probably don't think that I can force this towel down your throat. Trust me, I can."
To Liam Neeson's ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills, shocking a man for information in the movie Taken: "You either give me what I need, or this switch stays on until they turn the power off for lack of payment on the bill."
There's just one problem with these scenes, according to former FBI agent and interrogation expert Joe Navarro: "None of it works,[/img]http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2014/12/real-americans-love-torture-cause-its.html
