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Bauer's Torture Ethics Get Slapped on 24

For 24 hero, torture no longer cut and dry

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 10, 2009 6:30 PM CST

(Newser) – After years of shooting, shocking, drugging, and maiming terror suspects, Jack Bauer will finally be tortured—by his own conscience, Peter Finn reveals in the Washington Post. 24 opens its seventh season with its post-9/11 action hero testifying before Congress about his interrogation tactics. Bauer remains defiant, but he’ll weigh the repercussions of his actions as the season progresses.

Jack will “travel some distance on the subject,” said 24’s head writer, who promised a more “deep” and “nuanced” look at torture. Critics have blasted the show for harmful portrayals of interrogations. It “is an advertisement for torture on prime-time television,” said one activist. Concludes Finn: “The sins of the past are beginning to weigh on Jack, and the show’s writers.”

[Images (3)]

[Videos (3)]

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In this image released by Fox, Kiefer Sutherland stars as Jack Bauer, right, and Annie Wersching stars as Renee Walker in a scene from the seventh season of "24." (AP Photo/FOX, Kelsey McNeal)

In this image released by Fox, Kiefer Sutherland stars as Jack Bauer in a scene from the seventh season of "24." (AP Photo/FOX, Kelsey McNeal)

Jack Bauer will begin to examine the repercussions of his action in the seventh season of "24." (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)

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An early look behind the scenes of '24,' season 7. (hulu.com)

An sneak preview of '24,' Season 7. (hulu.com)

A sneak preview of '24,' Season 7. (hulu.com)

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For years, 24 has been in the cross hairs of not just human rights activists appalled by its casual depiction of torture, but also military and law enforcement professionals, who say it has corrupted impressionable recruits. - Peter Finn, Washington Post

As a rule, people like to see Jack Bauer torture the [expletive] out of someone. Torture is done to such an extent they've cornered the market. - Adam Fierro, former 24 writer

In its sixth season, 24 sagged, a victim of its longevity but also, perhaps, of the public's weariness of the war on terror and the scandals surrounding the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and in CIA secret prisons.
- Peter Finn, Washington Post

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Bauer's Torture Ethics Get Slapped on 24