24's Joel Surnow on his conservative 1/2 Hour News Hour and Jack Bauer's torture tactics

[cyberpj]

(And why our family doesn't watch 24 or any Fox shows anymore.)

Eveything is Roger Ailes approved.

snip...

TVGuide.com: Why did you end up doing this for Fox News Channel? It seems like it could have worked on an entertainment channel like FX or the Fox network.
Surnow: We went in and pitched a version of this show . Fox entertainment president Peter Liguori gave us the money to make a 10-minute presentation. We made it. They turned it down. We looked at it and said, "You know, there is really something here. Where could we go with this?" Everywhere we thought about going didn't really seem to be a fit. Fox News chairman Roger Ailes is a friend of ours, and we just sent it to Roger and said, "What do you think we could do with this?" He said, "I like it. I think it's got a lot of promise. Let's do two episodes, and I'll put it on. Let's try it."

snip...
TVGuide.com: A New Yorker story said the producers of 24 recently had a visit from Brig. Gen. Patrick Finnegan from West Point, who expressed concerns about some of the torture methods used by Jack Bauer and the effect that has on cadets who watch. Joel, the story said you weren't at the meeting, but is the depiction of torture something you're thinking about more?
Surnow: First of all, let me clarify. It was very unfairly skewed the way it was written in the New Yorker about how I missed the meeting. We have a show to run, and whenever we have visitors — these were visitors of Howard Gordon — some of us go to those meetings and some of us continue to work on the show. Jane Mayer made it sound like I was concocting right-wing conspiracies with Roger Ailes. We do talk about it. But again, we believe that unlike her assertion — that cadets in Baghdad are watching 24 and getting riled up and going in and torturing and interrogating people — our assertion would be more that cadets in Baghdad may be seeing their buddies beheaded or killed or innocent people being killed and get riled up, not an hour of television.... Our show lives in its own world, and I don't really know what answer people want to hear. I just don't believe that adult behavior is changed by watching a TV show. Then it gets to the premise we start with. If that's the standard that 24 is going to be held to, we should be looking at every other television show and asking questions — how did this particular show affect adult behavior? Will promiscuous behavior by teenagers cause more AIDS deaths because TV shows teenagers having sex? At least be intellectually honest and apply it to every show.

full article at:
http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/The-Biz/default.aspx

[bryant69]

1. That bit with Rush Limbaugh and Evil Ann seems like it was produced

by a highschool film class. And not a particularly talented one.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. It reminded me of a cheap porn flick - I laughed all thru it

A pasty-skinned overweight boss with his pants down around his ankles summons his nymphomaniac secretary into the office as corny music starts to play in the background. Before you know it she's on the desk, under the desk, and all over this pathetic fat clown.............and he thinks he's some super stud, while she's doing the nasty.

It was funny, but not for the reasons Faux intended.

[Beelzebud]

2. He confirms what I've been saying about 24 for a long time.

It glorifies torture to make the public open to the idea.

[rocktivity]

4. Of course! Even Survival, Punked and American Idol

carry with it an undercurrent of tortuure, powerlessness and humiliation. It's all part of making torture, warfare, and the erosion of our civil liberties seems natural and organic.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Bonhomme Richard]

5. Cadets in Bagdad? What the hell is he...................

talking about? Another horses ass.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. There are no cadets in Baghdad.

Last I knew, our cadets were located in West Point or Annapolis or Colorado Springs. Now of course since we have colonized Iraq, it is possible that the military acadamies have opened branch offices in Baghdad, possible, but very unlikely.

"that cadets in Baghdad are watching 24 and getting riled up and going in and torturing and interrogating people" - what an idiot.

[Sabriel]

22. Or, maybe we're reduced to sending cadets

Gotta fill those quotas.

[truebrit71]

7. "Roger Ailes is a friend of ours"...more than enough reason to NEVER watch...

...that right-wing masturbatory fantasy known as '24'....

[Seen the light]

8. So then you also have no problem with the Dixie Chicks boycotts...

I assume? Whenever your typical right-wing moran refuses to watch a spectacular movie that just happens to have Sean Penn in it....I guess that makes complete sense to you also, doesn't it?

[cyberpj]

9. The difference is Penn and The Dixie Chicks are performers.

Performers with opinions can be ignored for their individual opinionated performances, but they also do a lot of other professional work that has nothing to do with their own opinions.

Roger Ailes does nothing that does not contain or promote his own opinion and agenda.

[Seen the light]

10. I've seen many boycott cries against ANYTHING by Michael Moore

Or if you don't like that analogy either, there are many filmmakers whose films the Dittoheads won't see just because of their politics.

My point is that you can despise this Faux News "comedy" show and even Joel Surnow himself. Just don't make the leap that 24 is somehow RNC propaganda because of the links it has with the stuff I just mentioned.

If you want to call it out because of its torture stuff, at least I can understand that (although I personally would disagree with that also, but whatever.) I would recommend at least watching 24 before you make up your mind on what it really is. :)

[PLF]

13. Just admit you like the propaganda.

[cyberpj]

16. I've watched every single season of 24 since it's debut. It WAS the one show on Fox I liked.

It's only this year we backed away because of the fear mongering via suitcase nukes and the continuing "sometimes we just have to torture" message. It finally became way too right-wing message oriented.

Finding out, now, about Surnow's close association with Ailes only fortifies that decision.

[Seen the light]

18. How is it different from Season 4?

That had the same nuke threat and even more torture than this season is having. What was your opinion of that season if you don't mind me asking?

[cyberpj]

20. You know what.

You're right about that. And I wanted to stop watching then, for the same reasons.

It was last season's performance by Jean Smart that kept me viewing.

This season it was a return to nukes, torture, and the wishy-washy brother of Palmer. Once the suitcase nukes appeared and they blew up LA I'd had enough. Maybe I just wised up to a lot of the propaganda imbedded within just as I wised up to the propaganda and lies of our own president.

Enough is enough I guess.

[cyberpj]

21. kick.

[Beelzebud]

11. Some of us just don't watch 24 because it sucks.

To me it was never an issue of boycott. I just thought the show was a right-wing torture-the-terroist crap-fest.

The show doesn't have enough merit to organize a boycott for.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. Besides it competes now with Heros

which is entertaining, fresh, and does not have a creepy pro-torture arc running through it.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. Of course - boycotts are a basic right.

The idiots on the right are free to boycott the dixie chicks and we are free their cultural advocates.

[truebrit71]

15. What is it about the phrase "Roger Ailes is friend of ours" that you mis-understand...?

He embodies all that is wrong with media and this country. If you are friends with that sack of shit, and promote his values (torture the 'darkies' being one of them) then I have no use for you.

Period.

[Seen the light]

19. I agree....Joel Surnow is nutso nt

[JHB]

17. It's "Dirty Harry" for the 21st Century

It's easy to be the guy who's always right but has to suffer through well-meaning fools if you have the power of The Script.

On an unrelated point, this bit from the New Yorker column caught my attention:
The office desk of Joel Surnow—the co-creator and executive producer of “24,” the popular counterterrorism drama on Fox—faces a wall dominated by an American flag in a glass case. A small label reveals that the flag once flew over Baghdad, after the American invasion of Iraq, in 2003. A few years ago, Surnow received it as a gift from an Army regiment stationed in Iraq; the soldiers had shared a collection of “24” DVDs, he told me, until it was destroyed by an enemy bomb.

What exactly are the rules about army regiments sending their flags off to people. Was it really from "the regiment", or just the officer who got to make those decisions? Is this really all that special? Or just another form of political party favor? (I envision a couple of soldiers, maybe as punishment detail since KP duty has been contracted out, being saddled with a couple of boxfuls of flags, and having to run them up and down the flagpole with full ceremony, just so that flags that "flew over Iraq" can be handed out or sold to those who take their koolaid intravenously...)

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

23. As Far As The Latter (24), It's Just A Show. And A Damn Good One At That.

This is just one more thing that's been blown so far out of proportion. It's like some people don't have any real things left to grip about anymore, that they've gotta attack a tv show as if it is reality.

24 rocks.