This past Tuesday Keith Olbermann asked the question...
Is "24" propaganda? Is it fear-mongering? Or is it a program-length commercial for one political party?
The simple answer to that is "Does a Duck go 'Quack'?"
But in all seriousness, I don't think Olbermann's question goes far enough - a better question would be "Is Everything on Fox TV propaganda, fear-mongering and an commercial for the GOP?"
And specifically on "24" how does it compare with other terrorism shows such as Showtime's "Sleeper Cell"?
Olbermann presented his question to documentarian Robert Greenwald, Director and Producer of OutFoxed: Rupert Murdock's War on Journalism
"Outfoxed" examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know.
The film explores Murdoch's burgeoning kingdom and the impact on society when a broad swath of media is controlled by one person.
This documentary also reveals the secrets of Former Fox news producers, reporters, bookers and writers who expose what it's like to work for Fox News. These former Fox employees talk about how they were forced to push a "right-wing" point of view or risk their jobs. Some have even chosen to remain anonymous in order to protect their current livelihoods. As one employee said "There's no sense of integrity as far as having a line that can't be crossed."
In his documentary Greenwald describes an internal cultural within Fox News that has a quite overt "Cultural War" perspective. On air hosts who manage to slide anti-Liberal anti-Democrat jibes into their commentary receive an "atta-boy" of accolades and shoulder pats - those who break ranks and dare to criticize the Bush Administration on anything other than not being Right-Wing Enough are discouraged and sometimes punished.
Outfoxed even gained access to internal memos by high-level Fox News exec John Moody who apparently would issue a "Message of the Day" down through-out the entire company in order to "set the stage" on how the news would be presented.
The following is a sample of reporting instructions issued by Moody to the FOX News staff.
Moody on the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal:
[T]he pictures from Abu Graeb [sic] prison are disturbing. They have rightly provoked outrage. Today we have a picture -- aired on Al Arabiya -- of an American hostage being held with a scarf over his eyes, clearly against his will. Who's outraged on his behalf? It is important that we keep the Abu Graeb [sic] situation in perspective (5/5/04).
Moody on the war in Iraq:
As is often the case, the real news is [sic] Iraq is being obscured by temporary tragedy. The creation of a defense ministry, which will be run by Iraqis, is a major step forward in the country's redevelopment. Let's look at that, as well as the deaths of a US soldier in a roadside bombing (3/25/04).
Into Fallujah: It's called Operation Vigilant Resolve and it began Monday morning (NY time) with the US and Iraqi military surrounding Fallujah. We will cover this hour by hour today, explaining repeatedly why it is happening. It won't be long before some people start to decry the use of "excessive force". We won't be among that group (4/4/04).
A more recent example of this type of dictate from on high of Fox Execs was the revelation that following the November 7th victory by Democrats in the House and Senate - Fox News decided they needed to finds some Happy Insurgents.
The elections and Rumsfelds resignation are a major event, but not the end of the world. The War on Terror goes on without interruption. Jennifer Griffin sent in info on Hamas calls for attacks on American interests. And lets be on the lookout for any statements from Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem controlled congress
What we have to realize is that every report - every second - on Fox News is presented in a way that supports the Right-Wing Agenda. From their incessent hyping of White Chicks in Peril ™ to O'Reilly's "We're looking out for the folks" spiel. It's all Naked Right-Wing Propaganda.
And so in major portions is Fox TV.
Before getting into this it has to be pointed out that a great many things going into the creation of each individual show as well as an entire network of shows - many shows can exist on a Network which are independant of the overall editorial view of it's owners simply because of their potential profitabiilty. How true that is of Fox TV remains an open question.
Although the network originally began with a leftward progressiveness that defied the dullness of the big three networks by putting shows that the others had specifically rejected or would never air such as "the Simpsons", "In Living Colour", "The X-Files" and the incredibly quirky "Get A Life" (featuring Chris Elliot). They eventually began a rightward shift which is best displayed by thier transition from consciencious urban shows like "ROC", "South Central" and "Frank's Place" to "Married with Children" (whose supervising producer Ralph Farquar was black man that had essentially taken the tragic black family from his show "South Central" and made their life a comedy by placing them in white skin and moving them from L.A. to the Chicago suburbs). That show which debut in 1987 and lasted for 11 seasons began Fox's eventually devolution into full-on Trash TV, pandering to the fears of middle America while exploiting thier own narcissist self-congratulation at being trashy. That trashy rightward slide was further edged along by the longest running Reality Show in History - "COPS" (which debuted in 1989 and continues today).
Just how many drunken street-walkers can you watch begin slammed into the concrete face-first does it take before you become completely desensitized to the violence of it?
Going even further than "Married", "COPS" showed poor people - both black and white - at their absolute worst moments in life while showing police , on whom the show depends for it's survival, in the very best possible light. As such the show has practically realized the neo-fascist wet-dreams of 50's and 60' s LAPD police chief Bill Parker, who during his tenure managed two full and distinct police divisions to surveil and blackmail hollywood, as well as directly manipulate the media's presentation of his department. For example in exchange for providing producer Jack Webb with "technical advisors" Parker's department demanded and received script approval over his bevy of freshly scrubbed police shows such as "Dragnet", "Adam-12" and "Emergency". Through Webb's shows, Parker was able to completely white-wash the brutal reality of the L.A.P.D., who while these shows were on their air frequently beat and shot unarmed black citizens sparking the Watts Riots which ultimately ended Parker's career.
Meanwhile back on current day FOX you can see the same sadistic voyerism of "COPS" in "American Idol" where half the draw is watching talentless freaks and geeks embarriss themselves - and the other half is continuing to believe in pipe-dream that there but for the grace of Simon Cowell could go you or I into the stratosphere of Super-stardom.
Add to all the above "America's Greatest Police Chases", "America's Most Wanted", the Jackass and Youtube precusor "America's Funniest Home Videos" (aka Take it in the Nuts) and of course trash-news shows such as "Inside Edition" (a direct pre-cursor to Fox News which not so coincidentally featured Bill O'Reilly as an anchor) and Fox's new fascist/trashy direction was set.
Which finally brings us to "24" which has become one of Fox's biggest hits. The show was originally fairly unique, begining as it did before 9-11, the original villians were highly mysterious. Who could possibly hate American Counterrorism agent Jack Bauer enough to kidnap his family in order manipulate him into killing then Presidential hopeful Senator Palmer?
The answer at the time was Dennis Hopper, playing a Bosnian terrorist who wished revenge on Jack for being involved in a raid that killed members of his family during the Croat-Serb War and on Senator Palmer for having approved the raid.
Using fast paced action and incessant cliff-hangerism of the old time Penelope in Peril film strip series - "24" managed to hide such a card-board flimsy premise behind chase scenes, shoot-outs and constant (often insane) plot twists.
Reality Check
The facts and reality of our involvment in ending the Bosnia War completely belay the "24" rationale. U.S. forces were only 1/3 of those sent to Bosnia-Herzgovenia to end the ethnic-cleansing and religious strife which had overtaken the area after the withdrawal of Soviet control of the former Yugoslavia. We the U.S in fact - along with equal parts European and Russian troops - were the heroes in that scenario after President Clinton used Diplomacy and persuasian - and only violence as a last resort - to negotiate and implement the Dayton Peace Accords.
Not one single American Soldier was killed in this conflict.
Murderous criminals such as Slobadon Milosovec (whom Hopper's character was clearly emulating) were held accountable by International Courts and eventually died in prison.
Yet even in this early version of the show some right-wing thinking was already evident when Jack Bauer literally stumbles upon the Super-Secret Military Prison Facility which had been holding Hopper on U.S. Soil. (A sequence which in all likelyhood, considering how many neo-cons claim this as their "favorite show" may been may have been at least in part an inspiration for Bush administration own implementation of Secret Prisons).
Personally I felt the show completely jumped-the-shark of credibility half-way through Season One when Jack's wife spontaneous contracted amnesia after seeing the car containing their daughter fall over a cliff and disappear.
Since those early days where Jack has been driven by the constantly tickling clock to commit acts of extreme violence, including - but not limited to - multiple acts of murder, torture, armed robbery and kidnapping or numerous occasions.
Jack Bauer can be nearly always expected to resort to the most brutal and direct means when neccesary, all those pesky rules (i.e laws) are often tossed out of the window as soon as Jack-the-man arrives on the scene. This is considered such a crucial element to that show that the current fan poll question on the 24 Home Page is...
"What other terrorist body part do you think Jack could easily bite off?"
(Click image to view closeup of poll)
At the end of last season he staged a hijacking of Marine One in collusion with the First Lady in order to kidnap then-President Logan and trick him into admitting his complicity in the murder of his predecessor President Palmer in order to cover up his aidding and abetting terrorists gaining access to toxic nerve gas. This was done in order to support Logan's wish to concoct a false "WMD" charge against oil rich states as a pre-cursor to invasion. (Hmm - kinda familiar - but ultimately Re-f-inging-diculous!)
Even in this scenario the batty plans of this President are succesfully thwarted - which further suggests that no President could ever get away with such a thing, right?
Besides the fact that torture doesn't work the final nail in the "24"'s wingnut coffin is the news that the shows co-creator Joel Surnow has teamed with FOX News to develop a right-wing version of the Daily Show.
"The way I look at it, almost every comedy show or satire show I see uses the same talking points against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney," "24″ co-creator Joel Surnow said. "The other side hasn’t been skewered in a fair and balanced way." November 20, 2006
Although there have been several attempts in recent years by various progressive film makers to present a more "balanced" view of anti-terrorism and America middle-east involvement the results have been decidedly mixed. George Clooney's Syriana, which showed the plight of a loyal but disavowed ex-CIA assasin in the midst of international forces was largely a muddle.
Stephen Speilberg's "Munich", which attempted to chronical Israeli intelligences attempts to assisinate those responsible for the murder of their athletes at the 1972 Olympics was just as problematic as it attempted to moralize the actions of the Mosaad agents far too quickly and neatly.
Showtime's Sleeper Cell however, is an entirely different animal. Starring Michael Ealy as an African-American muslim FBI agent Darwin al-Hakim (a Sunni) who voluanteers to spend 18 months in prison in order to infiltrate an al-Qaeda cell in Los Angeles. Much of the show frequently discusses and highlights the very real debate within Islam as to the application of violence, and splits between those who advocate peaceful resolution of disputes and those who do not. It has become one of the most faithful representations of the muslim faith on tv including fairly heady debates between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims.
In the first episode Darwin directly faces anti-muslim prejudice in the wake of 9-11 by coming to the rescue of a pair of Indian Sikh's, who are mistaken by a set of street thugs for Arabs due to their head-wraps.
Also in that same episode , which aired before the reality of the Bush's domestic eavesdropping program was revealed, the Cell's leader Fariq al-Farik (played brilliantly Oded Fehr) learns that one member has phoned home to Egypt to brag about their upcoming attack and immediately has that member executed (via stoning) for violating protocol just in case the NSA might have been listening (which on the show they weren't because without a warrant that's illegal - but as we know in reality they have been, warrant or not).
This is not to say that Darwin doesn't cross some fuzzy Jack Beaur-ish lines, he intervenes in the middle of the stoning to shoot the intended victim in the head and end his pain quickly. This move nearly ends his investigation once it's discovered - and at the end when the cell is ultimately brought down his actions are cited as potential compromising any possible criminal case - therefore the one surviving terrorist who is apprehended (Farik) is relegated to military custody where he is interrogated by the CIA and Military Intelligence who beat him and attempt various psychological tricks to gain his cooperation - none of which are successful. Eventually as a wanted Saudi he is extradited and then severely tortured including shoving a peice white-hot steel into his urethra while the CIA looks on - and he still doesn't talk.
Reality Check
The FBI highest ranking Arab-American agent, Bassam Yousef, has recently sued for discrimination after being taken off undercover work and placed on desk duty.
WASHINGTON - Bassem Youssef is the FBI's highest-ranking Arab-American agent. He's fluent in Arabic, ran the FBI's offices in Saudi Arabia and is a terrorism expert. In fact, Youssef's undercover work helping to infiltrate the terror organization of the so-called "blind sheik," Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, earned him the intelligence community's most-prestigious award, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal.
But now, for the first time, Youssef is speaking out against the agency he loves.
"I don't believe that the FBI's doing everything it can to combat terrorism," the 18-year FBI veteran tells NBC News.
Though he's one of only six FBI agents with advanced Arabic skills, Youssef believes that, since 9/11, the FBI has blocked him from playing a significant role in the war on terror. He claims discrimination, and sued the FBI in 2003.
"To be totally set aside, blackballed since 9/11, makes absolutely no sense," he says.
Youssef's experience is not all isolated according to the Washington Post.
Five years after Arab terrorists attacked the United States, only 33 FBI agents have even a limited proficiency in Arabic, and none of them work in the sections of the bureau that coordinate investigations of international terrorism, according to new FBI statistics.
Counting agents who know only a handful of Arabic words -- including those who scored zero on a standard proficiency test -- just 1 percent of the FBI's 12,000 agents have any familiarity with the language, the statistics show.
The numbers reflect the FBI's continued struggle to attract employees who speak Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and other languages of the Middle East and South Asia, even as the bureau leads a fight against terrorist groups primarily centered in those parts of the world. The same challenge is facing the CIA and other agencies as the government competes with the private sector for a limited number of applicants with foreign-language proficiency, according to U.S. officials and experts.
In the original mini-series sequel Sleeper Cell:American Terror Darwin is actually faced with bigotry himself by other members of the bureau and even his Case Agent who suspects his loyalties simply because he's a muslim (echoing Youssef), while battling this he has to delicately balance the needs of maintaining his cover and appearing o help the terror plot proceed so that he can work his way further into the network. Information is compartmentalized under "Operational Security", even Cell leaders don't know the ultimate target or exact method to be used in the attack until neccesary, therefore capturing minor members and trying to "beat the truth out of them" is literally pointless. They don't know anything - yet. (Which according to the 9-11 Commission Report is exactly how the trade center and pentagon attack cells operated).
Update:In one direct contrast to 24's phony Bosnia bad guys, Sleeper Cell featured one Bosnia cell member who eventually went home ten years after his original indoctrination into the Mujahadeen during the violent ethnic-cleanings of the Bosnia War to find that his homeland has now become a realitive "paradise of peace" (Thank's the President Clinton as I mention above). As a result he begins to renounce his membership in al-Qaeda, until he's spotted and kidnapped by other members of the brotherhood intent on dragging him back into the fold.
Sleeper Cell isn't perfect, and being on Showtime it can be extremely violent and filled with sexual content (including a n explicit gay relationship with one Iraqi cell member) - but with the help of Islamic Technical Advisor Omar Haroon and Military advisors Mir Bahmanyar and James Dever it's tried hard to put realism on the screen, not neccesarily pander to any particular ideological viewpoint.
Update: Some have argued that 24 is "just a TV Show" and that is demonstrably true, however the scenarios shown on this show have had an impact on the national discourse involving issues of national security.
Cal ThomasIf the Army nabs a person it suspects of knowing the location of a nuclear bomb about to wipe out an American city, would the interrogators and their military and civilian superiors refuse to use torture to squeeze the information out of the captive?
That was precisely the scenario on "24." Agent Jack Bauer rightly chose the greater good -- saving millions of lives -- over the niceties imposed by those whose manual seems inspired by "The Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette."
SUSSMAN: And of course, right off the bat, they talk about the very issues that we've already discussed, with the exception of one -- my advocating the use of torture on the battlefield, which was -- actually, it was a bit. Lee, this particular bit that's gotten me in all sorts of hot water in the blogosphere was actually a scripted bit entitled "Jack Bauer in Baghdad."
ALL: [laughs]
SUSSMAN: OK, it was Jack Bauer --
MORGAN: In reference to 24.
SUSSMAN: -- from the TV show 24, on the field of battle. A bunch of his buddies, a bunch of his fellow soldiers had just been taken hostage by a group of insurgents. He was able to hold one of the insurgents back, and now he realizes time is limited: "All right, where are my buddies? Where did your guys take them? I want to know now." And he starts out by threatening the guy: "If you don't talk, I'm going to cut off the tip of your little finger. And if you still don't talk, I'm going after your private parts." So he begins with the tip of the finger, and guess what? The guy talks. The guy talks.
RODGERS: The ticking-clock thing.
Whereas 24 jingoistly exploits our fears of international terrorism, Sleeper Cell gives a inside view of how terror cells operate and how the internal struggles of bigotry within our nation mirror the struggles within Islam.
No TV Show is a perfect representation of Reality, not even so-called "Reality" shows due to the natural skewing tendencies of the editing process. Also most television shows and movies are a largely collarborative effort, with the final result being a combination of many different voices and viewpoints. But when you are clearly dealing with an Network with a clear idelogical agenda as FOX does, it's wise to understand what that agenda is and how it might be affecting the final work, shifting it from potentially enlightening education to merely diverting entertainment and finally naked propaganda.
Exactly how the FX Network which has shows such as "Rescue Me", "Nip/Tuck", "30 Days", the decidedly post-Parker corrupt Cop show "The Shield" and briefly the one Iraq War show ever on the air "Over There", has so far escaped the overall Murdock/FOX ideological bent remains a mystery to me - it could just be dumb luck or maybe the fact that those shows are all good and most neo-con tripe isn't - but clearly nothing in Hollywood is absolute.
Vyan
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