The conservatives like '24'? After last season?

The conservatives like '24'? After last season?

June 26, 2006


You might think that "24" -- the popular Fox series about superhuman U.S. counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer -- would have few fans among conservatives, given that its 2005-06 storyline dealt with a power-mad president who assassinated his noble predecessor and used a terrorism crisis as a pretext to advance his plan to seize Middle Eastern oil fields. This is a parody of the nutty "the war is about oil and only oil" arguments of the left, but a parody taken very seriously. "24" reflects the zeitgeist, we're told, and that the zeitgest fears we have a crazy man as president, and so of course it's happy that Jack Bauer kidnaps the president and strongly considers torturing him.

You might think this would lead conservatives to loathe "24," but you'd be wrong:

It's not unusual for hit TV shows to attract fans and draw crowds at fan conventions…. such as for ABC's "Lost," or CBS's "CSI." But in Washington today, there was a fan convention that was a tad unusual.

At the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center, the Heritage Foundation hosted a forum on the hit FOX-TV show "24" that can only be described as adulatory. Though the panel featured homeland security experts, the co-creators of "24" and three of the show's stars to purportedly discuss "'24' and America's Image in Fighting Terrorism: Fact, Fiction, or Does it Matter?" the event became a love-fest — a lofty, intellectual, probing one, but a love-fest nonetheless, with the amphitheater packed with rows and rows of the show's fans from the city's conservative power structure.

Front row center sat Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff gave the opening remarks. And it was a chance to see Rush gush.

snip

http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/weblogs/afb/archives/003948.html


Or, why is it only the bad guys spill their guts when tortured on "24" while the hero never breaks, and only gives false information?

I like the show, however the monsters of make belive, the right wing media clowns, are presenting it as proof that torture works.


Chertoff, Limbaugh And '24'
By Peter and Helen Evans
June 27, 2006

What do Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, talk-radio superstar Rush Limbaugh, and the creators and cast of the hit series "24" have in common? They were all part of a presentation last week by the Heritage Foundation.

snip

Rush Limbaugh introduced and moderated the panel, composed of James Carafano specializing in DHS at the Heritage Foundation and David Heyman from CSIS's Homeland Security Program, two academics who bracketed Hollywood's Joel Surnow, Robert Cochran and Howard Gordon, all executive producers and writers of "24" and three cast-members among them. In a prelude to the discussion about the contrast between TV and reality, Mr. Limbaugh's personal hearing-enhancement technology wasn't working well enough to allow him to hear most of what the panel was saying.

snip

It was brought up that what's generally called "torture" is liberally (ha-ha) used on "24" and did that correspond to a DHS reality. A Heritage academic on the panel with knowledge of American intelligence, author James Carafano, said the ticking time-bomb scenario - you know, the favorite extreme-case rationale for justifying torture - has never really occurred. Well, maybe someone will have to deal with that scenario sometime, but the consensus was that intelligence work was a tedious process of analysis rather than sudden, painfully extracted revelations. No question, however, what makes for better TV!

snip

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/guest/2006/phe_06271.shtml


Hard truth about Washington series

Tuesday, June 27, 2006
By Lisa de Moraes The Washington Post

snip

Don’t take my word for it. Just ask the show’s more ardent fans who, as we learned during the Heritage Foundation’s ”24” forum in Washington just last week, include Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, radio talker Rush Limbaugh, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, President Bush the Elder and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

snip

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=293859&Category=20


http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&q=24+%22heritage+foundation%22

While limbaugh was jawboning with the hollywood crowd about a fictitious tv show, Al Franken was having a round table discussion about Iraq with all sides present.

He's a regular Michael Jackson/Elizabeth Taylor, and not part of the reality based community.

I watched a whole season (not last, but the previous season) and thought the show was laughable. Perhaps someone can help me out. What's the appeal?

By presenting super powered Arab Terrorists who literally have 19 plans in motion for one day, each plan just a cover for the next one.

That said, some of the actors are quite good, and there is a sense that anything can happen on that show. You never know what is going to happen next. Sometimes you can see it coming, but even then you can be surprised.

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

Given that the show is shown in real time (or at least it claims to be, sometimes people get from place to place very quickly), it does have a little bit of fluff thrown in from time to time as the show can't be 100% action and relevant dialog. However, I've found the production values to be extremely high for a television show, especially one with 24 episodes a season. Some of the scenarios might seem far fetched, but I think the action scenes are really well shot and the acting to be top notch. I'm also a huge fan of Keifer Sutherland and find Jack to be the baddest of badasses.