All: "24" and Civil Liberties

Since September 11th, depictions of torture have become much more common on American television. Before the attacks, fewer than four acts of torture appeared on prime-time television each year, according to Human Rights First, a nonprofit organization. Now there are more than a hundred, and, as David Danzig, a project director at Human Rights First, noted, “the torturers have changed. It used to be almost exclusively the villains who tortured. Today, torture is often perpetrated by the heroes.” The Parents’ Television Council, a nonpartisan watchdog group, has counted what it says are sixty-seven torture scenes during the first five seasons of “24”—more than one every other show. Melissa Caldwell, the council’s senior director of programs, said, “ ‘24’ is the worst offender on television: the most frequent, most graphic, and the leader in the trend of showing the protagonists using torture.”  

(from "WHATEVER IT TAKES: The politics of the man behind “24.” by JANE MAYER)

I mentioned this in Block IV yesterday (I think - maybe it was Block II), how Mr Welden was  telling me that although Jack Bauer himself sometimes has to tromple on certain civil liberties in the name of terrorism, that actually a theme of the show seemed to be that even in these uncertain times we must respect human rights and civil liberties.  That's what makes us Americans, after all.

This week's issue of the New Yorker has an article about "24" and the man who created it, Joel Surnow.  While Surnow's number one concern is audience-share, it tunrs out he's not so concerned with civil liberties as Mr Welden seems to think.

The series, Surnow told me, is “ripped out of the Zeitgeist of what people’s fears are—their paranoia that we’re going to be attacked,” and it “makes people look at what we’re dealing with” in terms of threats to national security. “There are not a lot of measures short of extreme measures that will get it done,” he said, adding, “America wants the war on terror fought by Jack Bauer. He’s a patriot”. . .  
Surnow, who has jokingly called himself a “right-wing nut job,” shares his show’s hard-line perspective. Speaking of torture, he said, “Isn’t it obvious that if there was a nuke in New York City that was about to blow—or any other city in this country—that, even if you were going to go to jail, it would be the right thing to do?”

Does it matter?  It's just a tv show, right?

Well, take this quiz:  Rate these in order, from most to fewest.

a.  number of readers of the New York Times
b.  number of readers of George Orwell's 1984
c.  number of viewers of "24"