Note to Conservatives: Fox's "24" is not "a national referendum" on torture...

This is a guest post written by Andrew Ironside. It first appeared on Media Matters for America.

In his January 30 syndicated column, Cal Thomas attacked "ideologically decrepit" Iraq war protesters and claimed: "Unlike Vietnam, the Islamofascists won't leave us alone if we leave Iraq before stability is established." Discussing the possible consequences of exiting Iraq, Thomas referenced Fox Broadcasting's TV series 24: "Watch the TV drama '24' for what could be our prophetic and imminent future with a nuclear device exploding in major cities. Having concluded we don't have the stomach to fight them on their turf, they might understandably deduce we are even less willing to fight them on ours."

Thomas is not the first conservative to use 24 to forecast a nuclear attack on the United States. On the January 16 edition of Fox News' The Big Story -- airing a day after the premiere of 24's sixth season, in which "terrorists detonate a mini nuclear bomb in downtown Los Angeles" -- host John Gibson stated: "Well, certainly may be fiction for now. But 24's Jack Bauer has it right. People need to wake up to the possibility of nuclear attack." Gibson later asked: "Is 24's faux suitcase nuke bomb a real wake-up call for America? Should we take this as an early warning sign that something like this could happen here?" Jack Bauer is the show's main character, a member of the fictional "Counter Terrorist Unit."

Conservatives have also looked to the TV series for justification of…… aggressive interrogation procedures. On the September 13 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, discussing what constitutes torture and its use by the U.S. military when interrogating terror suspects, conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham told host Bill O'Reilly: "The average American out there loves the show 24. OK? They love Jack Bauer. They love 24. In my mind that's close to a national referendum that it's OK to use tough tactics against high-level Al Qaeda operatives as we're going to get."

CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck has also referenced Jack Bauer when talking about the interrogation of terrorist detainees. On the September 7, 2006, edition of his CNN Headline News program, Beck responded to a report confirming "the existence of secret CIA prisons" and "the use of an alternative set of procedures when questioning terrorists," saying: "I want a Jack Bauer out there. … It's the tactics and the programs that we don't know about that make me sleep well at night." Other examples of Beck's enthusiasm for the character include:

• On the November 30, 2006, edition of his CNN Headline News program, Beck responded to an email that asked about the "ill treatment of our prisoners in Guantanamo" and asserted: "Now me, I'm for more Jack Bauers. The Jack Bauer that has to extract information."
• On the September 25, 2006, edition of his CNN Headline News program, Beck claimed: "I think, really, most of us would like a Jack Bauer from time to time. The reality is a lot of these guys have information that could potentially save thousands of lives. You've got to do what you've got to do." He later asked former U.S. Army interrogator Mike Ritz: "Yes or no, does Jack Bauer exist in America, a guy like that?" Ritz said, "Sure," and Beck responded: "Love you."

Also, as Media Matters for America documented, on the January 17 edition of Fox News' Your World, private investigator Richard "Bo" Dietl used 24 to justify the use of racial profiling when searching for terror suspects. Discussing an incident in which 40 American Muslims were barred from boarding a plane, Dietl told host Neil Cavuto and guest Imam Sayed Hussan al-Qazwini, leader of the Islamic Center of America and one of the 40 Muslim passengers: "The fact of the matter is -- I mean, you don't watch 24 on Fox TV? They're out there. They're out there. There are cells out there. We have to protect ourselves against it, as Americans."