Torture Tactics of ‘24’ Examined by Human Rights Group—and Show’s Characters

Tough-guy Jack Bauer of the FOX TV program 24 never thought twice about hardball tactics that included shootings, beatings, mutilations and electroshocks. He and his colleagues did whatever was needed to battle terrorism and save the innocent.

But in the new season of the show, Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, is becoming more introspective, reports the Washington Post and the New York Times. He faces a Senate committee investigating use of torture by his dismantled counterterrorism unit and, as the series progresses, he begins to “travel some distance on the subject” of torture, said Howard Gordon, the executive producer and chief writer of 24, in an interview with the Washington Post.

Human Rights First says in a press release it expects the debate aired on the program to be more nuanced than in the past, but it fears the message will ultimately be that torture is effective and justifiable. The group has been battling 24’s torture message—in a new video and a campaign to educate the show’s producers that the tactics don’t work in the real world.

It used to be that only villains used torture on television programs, but that has changed since Sept. 11, according to Human Rights First. In 24’s first six seasons, the TV program showed 89 scenes of torture, the group says. It maintains the program has influenced some junior soldiers and even some interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, who have copied the show's interrogation techniques.

In 2006, Human Rights First arranged a meeting between the producers of 24 and Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, the dean of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Finnegan told the New Yorker that he asked the producers to stop portraying unethical and illegal behavior. “They should do a show where torture backfires,” Finnegan said.

The new video by Human Rights First intersperses scenes from 24 and other popular shows with comments from real-world interrogators who explain why such tactics don’t work. The video has been distributed to more than 1,200 military educators and is being used in classes at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.