This is what it’s come to, from the Wall Street Journal (via via):
The unfine print of Mr. Obama’s order is that he’s allowed room for what might be called a Jack Bauer exception.
The unfine print of the new Screen Actors’ Guild contract contains what might be called a “Tootsie” exception which allows male actors to be fired if they impersonate a woman on a soap opera for several weeks. The unfine print of most insurance waivers contains what be called a “Hancock” exception which prevents the signee from suing if he is injured by a a vigilante superhero.
People, it’s a fucking television show.
TenguPhule
DougJ, it’s the WallStreet Journal.
4tehlulz
The Jack Bauer exception just proves how liberal Hollywood is.
burnspbesq
Deliberate disinformation, designed to convince low-information Obama supporters that he isn’t really living up to his campaign promises. These folks need to be sodomized with the Broomhandle of Truth.
Odd, I don’t remember anything in the WSJ circa 2002 commenting on the gap between GWB’s promise to be "a uniter, not a divider" and the reality of the Cheney Organized Crime Family’s policies.
DonkeyKong
"People, it’s a fucking television show.’
Er no, it was policy for the last eight years.
Persia
I think we need to come up with our own awesome fictional hero who doesn’t torture to get results. Did Indiana Jones ever torture?
Cris
Indiana Jones barely even got results. I think it was Mark Evanier who pointed out that the overall story of Raiders of the Lost Ark would have unfolded almost exactly identically if Indy hadn’t been there.
Zifnab
HE’S EXACTLY LIKE BUSH! Except in all the ways that he isn’t.
I would love to see a piece of legislation that specifically spells out that the only person allowed to torture a terrorist suspect is Kiefer Sutherland, and he may only do so while attempting to uncover ticking time bombs set to explode in one of the major US cities.
Furthermore, Kiefer Sutherland will still be guilty of torturing a suspect outside of the rule of law if he can not then prevent the bomb from exploding within 24 hours.
DougJ
That’s because he didn’t torture.
terry chay
I sometimes wonder what it must be like working as a WSJ journalist knowing that the WSJ editorial board works in the same offices.
I guess it’s just mean reversion.
bud
I think Denzel Washington’s character in "The Siege" would be a good fictional counter-example to Jack Bauer. He stood against torture and for the rule of law and American values.
agorabum
Bauer is a creation of "hollywood." Bauer tortures. In the show, it gets results (I guess none of the terrorists are willing to just be a martyr or hold out for more than 30 minutes).
Hollywood is liberal.
therefore, liberal hollywood (aka: democratic base) supports torture and thinks it works.
so why isn’t the WSJ totally opposed to this?
ricky
Guys, its Rupert Murdoch.
KRK
Since this is more or less on topic and definitely worth a read, check out yesterday’s post at VetVoice on what Jack Bauer hath wrought. The author is a retired Army Reserve strategic intelligence officer and he’s hoping other military leaders will join in an on-going effort to get 24 to "stop showing torture so irresponsibly."
ricky
I much prefer John McLane in Die Hard. He gets tortured,
intercepts only the bad guy’s messages, and gets to hang with a dude named Zeus.
J Royce
People, it’s a fucking television show.
By that measure, "Triumph of the Will" is just a movie.
scarshapedstar
@J Royce:
Next he’ll try to tell us that Atlas Shrugged was just a novel.
Ash Can
Wouldn’t it be awesome if Kiefer Sutherland were to abruptly resign from "24" and issue a press release stating that he could no longer be a party to a production that was having this unintended adverse social and political impact?
Yes, I know this would never happen. He’s under contract, and even if he weren’t, he’d never deliberately forego the paycheck. I can dream, can’t I?
KRK
@Ash Can:
In any case, it’s a little late for Sutherland to have a flash of conscience about this. I’m pretty sure his contract has been renewed since the first time the military folks met with the 24 bigwigs, including Sutherland, and urged them to be more responsible.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Justice Scalia is on line 1. He wants to know WTF you are talking about.
anonevent
Haven’t these people realized that the only reason for that "Jack Bauer exemption" is so that a group that include Gates can come back and say that we shouldn’t torture?
Don
All the OMG HE’S JUST THE SAME talk just makes me shake my head. How does anyone who lives in the real world not grasp the huge difference between a policy of "we’ll do anything we want, anytime, with no assumed restrictions" and "we’re going to limit our behavior to X, Y and Z, but in extreme cases we’ll look into it."
I almost drove off the road today when someone claimed that the limits-with-options-for-advice was the same thing as under the Bush administration. Does anyone really think that the people on the front line though they had to run it by anybody before using "extreme interrogation techniques?"
gex
@Persia: The guy on Burn Notice deliberately eschews torture. But no one is watching the USA network in lieu of doing all their political thinking, unlike Fox.
gex
@KRK: IIRC, actors generally sign a seven year contract when they do a pilot. I’ll do my right wing blogger imitation and just conclude that means he hasn’t renewed his contract. Looking up facts is for liberal America haters, anyhow.
ricky
Is that where the Seven year itch comes from or was it just Marilyn?
Tommy Corn
Since popular culture seems to be the baseline for policy decisions, to solve both our energy consumption and carbon emissions problems, I propose we all drive cars we can propel with our feet since it worked so well for Fred Flintstone.
Nutella
Alan Dershowitz like Jack Bauer, too:
link