Torture and Television

Effects of the TV Program 24

Feb 28, 2007 Henry Berry

The popular and timely TV program "24" is shaping how younger generations of American soldiers view torture.

Testing with children has shown that watching television programs containing violence has no meaningful effects on them. The same cannot be said for adults. The TV program "24" is having a widespread effect on many adults. Once group of adults "24" is having a noticeable effect on is cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Despite being strongly advised by generals far outranking them that torture is ineffective in general and against military law, the prospective military officers remain persuaded that torture is effective. The program "24" has had the effect of overriding military discipline as outlined and stated by senior officers.

American troops in the field are similarly susceptible to the "24's" allure concerning torture. In a glass case in the office of the show's creator Joel Surnow there is an American flag once flown in Baghdad sent to him by an Army regiment stationed there. "24" is having such a noticeably undermining effect on military discipline and conduct that last in the Fall 2006, U. S. Army Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, dean of West Point, traveled to California to impress on Surnow and other producers and writers of the show the troublesome effect the show was having on cadets and throughout the rest of the military. Claiming a scheduling conflict, Surnow did not attend the meeting. But the meeting between Finnegan and creators of the show got nowhere anyway. Finnegan's informing the creators that when he told cadets in his West Point courses on the laws of war that torture was illegal, he often got the response, If torture is wrong, what about '24'?" The show producers responded with the pat rejoinder that "24" was only a TV show, dramatic entertainment, and based on fictional premises.

That the TV program "24" has opened up differences between top military officers on the one hand and West Point cadets and soldiers in the field on the other demonstrates the power TV and other film media has come to exert in contemporary society. This goes beyond the hold certain TV shows such as soap operas or "Seinfeld" have had causing viewers to change their schedules to be able to see episodes as they were shown. It also goes beyond the power of certain shows in starting a fad or certain mannerisms of a moment. As the cadets and field troops say while referring to "24," there is a direct, explicit connection between the show and their perspective on torture and the actions of many soldiers. This is not a new authoritarianism shaping up in this time of weak authority. This is a movement further from the notion of authority. The West Point cadets and soldiers in Iraq point to "24's" fictionalized circumstances and actions of the main character Jack Bauer as not only examples of actions they can see themselves engaging in, but as justifications for such actions. The soldiers' rationale is something like, "Hey, if they do it on TV and the TV program is popular, it's OK, even laudable and patriotic." It's as if a TV program has taken the place of the Judeo-Christian moral tradition. As simple as that--a shortcut, and more the better an entertaining one, to the complete resolution of a thorny moral question. Would that someone could pull the plug on such TV shows to keep such impressionable adults from being molded by them.

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