From Eddie Bauer to Jack Bauer—what 9/11 hath wrought

THE VERDICT: "The Fiction Behind Torture Policy," by Dahlia Lithwick, Newsweek, 4 August 2008, p. 11.

Bit on Jane Mayer's book, The Dark Side and Phillipe Sands' Torture Team, leading Lithwich to declare, "it quickly becomes plain that the prime mover of American interrogation doctrine is none other than the star of Fox televisions, "24," Jack Bauer."

More:

As Sands and Mayer tell it, the lawyers designing interrogation techniques cited Bauer more frequently than the Constitution."

Sort of a WWJBD philosophy—as in, What would Jack Bauer do?

It is one sick piece of slick journalism by Lithwick. Very Susan Faludi.

Reminds me of my "Dirty Harry" piece for Wired back in 2005.

I guess I show my roots—and age.

Comments

[Marianne Coleman]

I wonder about the 24 phenomena...and I'm a fan...it helps sell books, magazines...it's the system administrator's game.

[Mike Russell]

I didn't think it could get any worse after we learned that a study of Communist Chinese torture/brainwashing from the Korean War, originally intended to train our servicemen to resist and survive these techniques, had instead become the model we were emulating. But this reveals a new low.

[RK]

Tom, I know this is old, but torture is the chef's special again lately and I'm having some hot discussions about it. Somebody brought up Jack Bauer. I read this post and was wondering if you could elucidate? Are you saying this Lithwick's piece is a distortion? How is she like Faludi? Thanks. RK