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Independent – February 13, 2007
US military tells Jack Bauer:
Cut out the torture scenes ... or else!
Andrew Buncombe
In the hugely popular television series 24, federal agent Jack Bauer always gets his man, even if he has to play a little rough. Suffocating, electrocuting or drugging a suspect are all in a day's work. As Bauer - played by the Emmy Award winner Kiefer Sutherland - tells one baddie: " You are going to tell me what I want to know - it's just a matter of how much you want it to hurt."
But while 24 draws millions of viewers, it appears some people are becoming a little squeamish. The US military has appealed to the producers of 24 to tone down the torture scenes because of the impact they are having both on troops in the field and America's reputation abroad. Forget about Abu Ghraib, forget about Guantanamo Bay, forget even that the White House has authorised interrogation techniques that some classify as torture, that damned Jack Bauer is giving us a bad name.
The United States Military Academy at West Point yesterday confirmed that Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan recently travelled to California to meet producers of the show, broadcast on the Fox channel. He told them that promoting illegal behaviour in the series - apparently hugely popular among the US military - was having a damaging effect on young troops.
According to the New Yorker magazine, Gen Finnegan, who teaches a course on the laws of war, said of the producers: "I'd like them to stop. They should do a show where torture backfires... The kids see it and say, 'If torture is wrong, what about 24'?
"The disturbing thing is that although torture may cause Jack Bauer some angst, it is always the patriotic thing to do."
The meeting in November was arranged by Human Rights First, a non-profit organisation that has launched a campaign against torture both in the real world and on television. It says that since the terror attacks of September 11, the incidence of torture in television shows has soared. In 2000 there were 42 scenes of torture on prime-time US television while in 2003 there were 228. . .
But during the fourth series of the show, broadcaster Fox was forced to air a series of public service announcements, following criticism about the series' portrayal of Muslims by the Council on American-Islamic Relations….
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2264632.ece
Cox News Service – February 6, 2007
With so much terrorist carnage on the tube,
Muslims fear their religion is the target
Jill Vejnoska
You can't be a devoted watcher of Fox TV's "24" and not have questions about the suitcase nuke attack on Los Angeles, or the fatal neck bite Jack Bauer puts on a terrorist, among other outrageous plot twists.
Toqeer A. Chouhan, a 28-year-old Atlanta attorney and Muslim, is no exception.
But his queries run deeper.
"Why is there not a Syrian bad guy or Lebanese bad guy being mentioned?" asks Chouhan, who was born and raised here and who describes himself as a "huge" fan of "24."
"Instead, they are just using the broad category of 'Islamic terrorists' to talk about the events taking place. If many of these shows were actually sensitive in trying to be fair in their depiction of Muslims, there would be more of an effort made to try and disconnect the terrorist actions from the actual religion of Islam."
For several years television shied away from story lines connected to Sept. 11, 2001. Now, more than five years later, things have changed. Scripted television programs no longer avoid terrorism-related story lines. Muslim characters are increasingly commonplace, mostly in a negative way.
From episodes of "The Unit" and "Without a Trace" to the upcoming BBC America miniseries "The State Within," it appears any Muslim who isn't a terrorist is suspected of being one. Or a sympathizer.
"There really are no other images of Muslims in the media now," says Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which worked with Fox two years ago on a public service announcement that aired during "24." But Ahmed says her group was somewhat surprised by the intensity of this story line, featuring a string of attacks on U.S. cities by Islamic militants.
"People frame it as a freedom of speech issue and we support that. But these portrayals have real consequences on how people view Muslims."
The fact that the vast majority of Muslims aren't terrorists is something many feel gets lost in translation on TV. The issue burst into prominence recently when CAIR said "24," with its "repeated association of acts of terrorism with Islam, will only serve to increase anti-Muslim prejudice in our society."
"Right now, the word 'terrorist' only means Muslim or Arab," laments Tayyibah Taylor, editor and publisher of Azizah, an Atlanta-based magazine for Muslim women. "People get most of their information about Islam and Muslims from TV and the movies. They can't separate what's truth from fiction, what's religion from culture, and it all gets lumped into one -- 'This is what they're about. They're all a bunch of terrorists.' "……
http://www.dailybreeze.com/today/articles/5569101.html
Newsday – February 7, 2007
NY: CW Post fires dorm advisors over 'Hostage' movie
By Herbert Lowe, Olivia Winslow and Jennifer Kelleher
A two-minute video that administrators consider insensitive to Muslims has cost five resident assistants and a residence hall advisor their jobs at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University, according to the editor of the campus newspaper.
The short film depicts a scene similar to one where Americans being held hostage by Al-Qaeda terrorists are forced to shoot videos pleading for their life, according to an account scheduled to be published on Wednesday in the Pioneer newspaper.
Instead of a human victim, a white rubber duck named Pete is being held "hostage." The film is called "A Duck Napping," and the rubber duck is the mascot for a campus residence hall, Brookville Hall, the Pioneer reported.
According to the Pioneer, in the video the five resident assistants are disguised in ski masks and speaking broken English and using stereotypical "Middle Eastern" accents. The description of the video, which was posted on YouTube and Google Video and later taken down, describes the chatter as farcical demands for the duck's safe release.
Reaction to the C.W. Post administration's handling of the matter has caused a "tremendous uproar" on the Brookville campus, said Danny Schrafel, the Pioneer editor-in-chief.
"I've been working on the paper a little over three-and-a-half years now and this is probably the biggest scandal I've seen on campus that entire time," Schrafel said.
He described the campus as split into two camps: People who believe the resident assistants were fired unjustly and people who were offended by the video.
In a statement provided to Newsday Wednesday, C.W. Post Provost Joseph Shenker defended the administration's response.
"At C.W. Post, we take seriously our obligation to create a campus environment that is free of prejudice and intolerance," Shenker said. "We do not condone any behaviors that demean the dignity of individuals or groups of people. We don't find anything about terrorism and hostage-taking to be humorous. We insist on a campus where respect for others is demonstrated at all times." ……
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lipost0208,0,3675967.story
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