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Olbermann: Is Fox's "24" just conservative fear-porn? [VIDEO]

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 10:53 AM on January 17, 2007.


Short answer: yes.
24

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Despite being days behind our coverage of Fox's fear-porn program, "24," we still respect Keith Olbermann for his coverage of the subject. Especially since he featured AlterNet board member Robert Greenwald in the clip to the right...

If we actually want to talk about who makes this country less safe (to the extent that it is unsafe), we should look no further than the latest national security expert to defect from the Bush camp to the Democrats'. Steve Benen writes:

A familiar pattern is taking shape: a qualified, competent official joins Bush’s counterterrorism team, grows frustrated by the administration’s priorities, resigns, and joins the Dems.

The latest is Todd Hinnen.

A counterterrorism adviser to President Bush is leaving the White House to join the staff of a prominent Democratic senator gearing up to investigate the administration’s war policies.

A Senate source said Todd M. Hinnen, a director for combating terrorism on the staff of the president’s National Security Council (NSC), will become the chief counsel for Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Hinnen follows Richard Clarke, Rand Beers, and Flynt Leverett, all of whom had key counterterrorism roles in the Bush administration, all of whom grew frustrated with the Bush gang’s policies, and all of whom teamed up with the Dems.

Upon learning that Hinnen was joining Biden, a Republican staffer on the Hill told the Washington Times, “Once again, people on the Bush White House staff turn on him while our soldiers and Marines fight to protect the rest of us.”

It’s exactly this kind of nonsensical, backwards attitude that probably helped drive Hinnen (and Clarke, Beers, and Leverett) to the Dems in the first place.

Read Steve's whole post HERE.

Joshua adds ...

Over at the NRO's blog, The Corner, Olbermann's piece draws some high-minded criticism ...

Digg!

Tagged as: fox, olbermann, 24, conservative

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.


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Propaganda for the police state, not Republican or
Posted by: albrechtkrausse on Jan 17, 2007 11:27 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Democrat but both. Since both parties, essentially, are the same. Its a fixed game in which one side will get elected to crack down on 'crime', bring 'law and order', get 'terrorists', outlaw 'dissent' speech, etc. Then the other will get elected to 'protect' women, 'protect' abortion, take away guns, and outlaw 'hate' speech and outlaw political speech/fundraising. Then we wake up and we have no freedoms left. Remember, just as many Democrats had secret police-like tactics (Echelon under Clinton, Kennedy, LBJ+Hoover, etc.) And the Republicans do the same (Watergate, Iran-Contra, Iraq debacle, etc.)
But notice how Democrats have not changed any of the draconian laws passed under the Republicans? In fact they reaffirmed some of them already and have more bills on the way to limit speech (hate crime bills, radio fairness doctrine, etc.)
"24" just wants us to get used to total survelliance, torture, and total allegience to the State-- which serve both parties and their elite controllers.

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» government is government Posted by: JoshuaLudd
P.O.S. show
Posted by: xbj on Jan 17, 2007 12:40 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Piece of shit show on a P.O.S. network, with everyone involved being nothing BUT groveling pieces of shit.

About as real as Bobby Lee's and Mad TV's spoof of it, which is FAR more entertaining. And realistic.

Porn? Absolutely... 90% of what's on network TV today is either soft core sex porn or soft core violence porn, with some shows dabbling in both simultaneously. Chasing the cable networks down the slippery slope off the cliff.

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» RE: P.O.S. show Posted by: VannaLaRoche
On the other hand...
Posted by: lessbread on Jan 17, 2007 2:48 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I agree that 24 conditions the viewer to accept torture, surveillance and other noxious wet dreams of police state America. On the other hand, the show didn't shy away from portraying how this corrupts our institutions. Last season's revelation that the President was behind the terrorists was a real treat and made even sweeter when the media cheerleaders for the show, like Rush Limbaugh, pitched a fit in response.

So far this season of 24 has shown that allegiance to the state can and probably will lead you to kill your close friends and that you will hate yourself for it. It's also shown that a suitcase nuke doesn't destroy an entire city ala Hiroshima but I'm not sure that's a good thing to realize. Is it better for the public to think of nuclear weapons as city killers (dozens of square miles) or town killers (a single square mile)? A suitcase nuke packs a 1 kiloton punch. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima packed a 13 kiloton punch. Today's nuclear arsenals pack punches measured in megatons. Definite city killers.

Anyway, does the show make us comfortable with the idea that terrorists will attack us with a nuke? Are we supposed to come away in support of the hardline approach to terrorism or are we supposed to wake up to the madness or are we supposed to draw our own conclusions? Does the show make people think or does it merely validate their preconceptions?

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So much to comment on, but...
Posted by: satirelikefire on Jan 17, 2007 4:21 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Comedian Rush Limbaugh..." - Keith Olbermann

I haven't LOL'd c/o the internet in a while, but that was the best zinger I've ever heard out of him.

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» RE: So much to comment on, but... Posted by: VannaLaRoche
America: Patriotism No Matter What
Posted by: icurhuman2 on Jan 17, 2007 5:15 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yes 24 is a piece of propaganda trash and it clearly supports the heavy-hand; in Australia it's on late TV, where all the bought but not very popular series end up. I watched it once and didn't need to watch it anymore to know that it's just another flag-waving piece of US garbage. But wait, isn't every American movie, TV series, radio program and newspaper exactly the same? Every production has an American flag displayed somewhere, or some reference to America and its superior everything. It's pathetic! Even children's cartoons contain the same flag-waving crap. This patriotism is
supposed to be a good thing, and no matter what political position an American holds they all agree that patriotism is something grand. Excuse me for a moment while I vomit.
While every American salutes their heroes of the past, the inventors and authors and the ever-present war-veterans, they actually learn very little from them. Here's a very big example:
Mark Twain (my favourite American of all time) said: Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people's countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for "the universal brotherhood of man"- with his mouth.
- "The Lowest Animal"

Now there's an American worth noting! A shame he's been dead so long.

It's obvious that the American system of so-called "democracy" doesn't work. The combination of corporate and media control, along with the celebrity-worshiping, bible-bashing and plainly ignorant and poorly-educated population means that even the most stupid ideas manage to make their way into open debate. Forget barbaric capital punishment being an issue, the discussion is actually about torture!!! And how many Americans think torture is alright? probably a few more after this morally bankrupt 24 program started to peddle the idea. Not that it really matters mind you; I mean, America has been torturing people for a long time now, the discussion that's occurring is just debate after the fact!
The American system is so corrupt that even the most repressive and regressive actions are only ever discussed after they've been implemented by the high-and-mighty. Before America decides to "bring democracy" to another country they ought to look at how lousy a "democratic" set-up they're running themselves!

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The Civil Rights Subtext
Posted by: TheTooleMan on Jan 18, 2007 10:41 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I saw Olbermann's discussion with Robert Greenwald, and I agree that torture is overplayed and over-rated by 24.

However, there is an important subtext in the new season of 24 which is being largely ignored: the loss of Americans' civil rights, the right of privacy, habeas corpus, etc. The sister of the President is an attorney who is constantly advocating the rights of her client, an apparent Middle Easterner, to her brother and the character played by Peter McNichol (sp?), who is apparently trying to create an American police state. I think both the author of this article and Keith Olbermann missed this aspect of the program, which I believe will become more important as the season progresses.

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Give me a break
Posted by: Chubbyrain on Jan 18, 2007 11:46 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Keith Olberman has had some good insight and raised some good questions in the past, but his discussion here shows that he is as bad a scare monger as anyone he has reported on in the past.

24 is a show. It is a hyper-reality. It is not real. Last season the president was the main bad guy and I would say that he was loosely based on a neoconservative. This season the writers have used one of the most difficult problems we face today as a theme. Civil Liberties vs Protection, whats the proper balance? To say this show is a Right Wing propaganda device is ridiculous. if Neocons think this show makes them look good or right, they are sadly mistaken.

Keith Olberman simply had nothing interesting to talk about, so he did his own bit of scaremongering directed at the conspiracy theorists in our country. I don't need him raising some assinine point like this and then talking down upon the American public like we're a bunch mentally challenged sheep.

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Last year we heard...
Posted by: esoder on Jan 18, 2007 12:28 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...that the popularity of 24 translates to American citizen's approval of extreme torture tactics. This year, I think we can anticipate that the show's popularity indicates American approval of the detention centers that have been built quietly in out of the way places.

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.
Posted by: sui_generis on Jan 18, 2007 12:35 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yeah, I've always called 24 fear-porn for the NeoCons.

Especially this season, though.

They also had another show on in the same vein that was even more "realistic".

What's interesting is that Keifer is a Liberal Canadian. Practically Socialist, in fact.

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Does everything have to be ideologically correct?
Posted by: NapalmSon1 on Jan 18, 2007 2:10 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Olbermann: "Is 24 propaganda, is it fear mongering, or is it a program length commercial for one political party?"

Could be a little of each of those things, but overall I would say it's just an entertaining TV show. I always thought branding TV shows as ideologically pure or impure was a characteristic of right-wing pundits. Sorry to see Olbermann has joined the fray.

I agree with the general proposition that everything has to be viewed within it's proper social and political context. But sometimes, isn't it nice to just be entertained?

I'm sorry that when Clint Eastwood blows away the psycho at the end of Dirty Harry that I don't get all angst-ridden about the plight of the mentally-ill in our society. I'm sorry that when John Wayne fights off Indians in The Searchers that I don't get outraged about the horrors unleashed by Manifest Destiny. And, I'm sorry but I don't really care how the depiction of torture on 24 affects the mind-set of idiots like Cheney and Limbaugh.

Instead of devoting a segment to fictional torture and civil liberties abuses, how about one on the real-life crimes committed against US citizen Jose Padilla? That's a story that needs as much play as it can get. This segment belongs in the trash heap alongside other wastes of time like O'Reilly's tirades against Ludacris and American Beauty.

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Boycott the Advertisers
Posted by: Shama on Jan 18, 2007 3:20 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's time to start complaining to the advertisers.
It seems that a boycott is in order

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relax, it's a show
Posted by: jbraze on Jan 29, 2007 2:54 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
First off...

I am genuinely opposed to this administration, to the fear tactics on tv (especially fox) and otherwise, and via my very politically knowlegeable husband am completely convinced that our government was behind 9-11. I watch all news with a cynical ear and know that bush is f.o.s everytime I hear his voice.

However....

I love 24. I always have since it started, it is a great drama with great characters and it is just entertaining. Although I do wish they would chill with the islamic terrorists plots, I am very aware that the bad guys always end up being someone else, in the last season, our president.

I'm glad someone else mentioned this season's strong sub-plot regarding the government taking away our civil rights and what is at stake. If viewers are taking any of this seriously then it can also make viewers see what our own government is capable of.

beyond that, I do not consider it fear-porn, although, if the neocons are watching it, they probably do. I just don't consider that the show's fault.

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