It's the ticking bomb scenario. The bad guy is tied to a chair. A bomb is about to explode. The good guy shoots him in the leg. 20 seconds later, the information is disclosed and the world is saved. It's Hollywood and TV magic at its best/worst and it's become primetime viewing throughout the US.
Jack Bauer of Fox's 24, Jack Bristow of ABC's Alias, and Detective Fontana of NBC's Law & Order all do it. In season two of 24, a man is tortured with a defibrillator, while the US president watches on a monitor. Joel Surnow‚ the co-creator and executive producer of "24, said the military loves the show. But the brass has its reservations.
“Some may argue that we would be more effective if we sanctioned torture or other expedient methods to obtain information from the enemy….They would be wrong….While we are warriors, we are also all human beings.” Gen. David H. Patraeus, US Army Cmdr. Multinational Forces, Iraq – May 10, 2007
Before September 11, torture on American primetv was rare. And when it did occur it was always the bad guy holding the knife or the wire. Now the role has been switched. It's become patriotic to torture.
In 2000, there were 44 scenes of torture. In 2003, that jumped to 228 according to the Parents Television Council.
Human Rights First has interviewed numerous former interrogators and retired military leaders. They claim the US soldier is imitating what they see on TV.
"We had no official doctrine about what to do," said Tony Lagouranis, a U.S. Army Interrogator who was in Iraq in 2004-2005. "So people were watching movies and watching TV and they were getting their ideas from that." Source here.
Primetime Torture by Human Rights First
