The AP has found a new way to attack TV’s 24. They say that because of the depiction of character Jack Bauer’s, shall we say, short-cuts in interrogating prisoners his ways have now infected the US Military. Absurdly, the AP is advancing the case, in “Does Jack Bauer Influence Interrogators?"(1), that “there are indications that real-life American interrogators in Iraq are taking cues from what they see on television.”

Are they indeed? Says who?

Predictably the AP reports these claims are from the “advocacy group Human Rights First”.

No surprise there, eh?

The scene from Fox’s “24” is haunting, but hardly unusual. The advocacy group Human Rights First says there’s been a startling increase in the number of torture scenes depicted on prime-time television in the post-2001 world.

Even more chilling, there are indications that real-life American interrogators in Iraq are taking cues from what they see on television, said Jill Savitt, the group’s director of public programs.

The article, of course, offers no real proof and even more ridiculously—get this—it is written by David Bauder, the AP television writer!

Not a news guy… an entertainment guy is responsible for this mess!

After reading this gem of reporting, you’ll see how empty of any substance it really is. But it serves the AP’s purpose of advancing the message that our soldiers are mind-numbed, animals that are so stupid that a TV show will cause them to torture everyone in their charge. Yes, it serves the AP’s purpose to smear the US military quite well.

In fact, about the only sensible quote in the entire piece is from one of the producers of 24.

“We’re not a documentary or a manual on interrogation,” he said. “We’re not a primer on the war on terror. We’re a television show.”

Truthfully, there isn’t much worth wasting breath about in this sloppy story, but it does raise some interesting questions.

How does the violence on TV infect the simple minds of our military, yet video games and movies are constantly claimed to be “just entertainment” in any other context? After all, they always say that the violence won’t affect our young because it’s “just movie fantasy”, or video, fantasy, or what have you. Yet, the same people rush to the support the violence and anti-sociality of Rap “music” every chance they get claiming it’s “just music” along with doing the same for TV and movies in similar fashion.

Yet, here is an entertainment “reporter” claiming that our soldiers are being ruined by this TV show and its fake violence?

What gives?

How can fake entertainment violence harm soldiers but not our children? How can it turn soldiers into crazed torturers but be perfectly harmless for the rest of society?

The answer to that is, of course, that the AP finds it advantageous to make an exception to their regular stance if it helps them smear the US military and the war effort.

Yep, no surprise there.

1) “Does Jack Bauer Influence Interrogators?”