Why I Don't Watch Fox's Hit Show "24"

Several years ago, when Fox TV was heavily touting its new drama, "24", I found myself sorely tempted to watch. While I still prefer his father Donald's acting style, Kiefer Sutherland is talented, photogenic, and shares his dad's marvelous voice and manner of speech. Plus the premise seemed interesting in this post-September 11th world: those who valiantly fight "the terrorists who would destroy America."

Yet that urge of mine passed, although not because "24" was not riveting, not dramatic, not engaging: even after several seasons, "24" remains all of those and more. It's probably why the show has not only won many awards, it's also been a rating magnet for Fox, a network that has tried many ideas but has only had a handful of big successes.

Part of what soured the "24" phenomenon for me was, strangely enough, the praise friends and co-workers heaped upon it. People who would never sit through even a half hour news program about terrorism and efforts to defeat it told me again and again that they could not get enough of the saga of Jack Bauer and his exploits. They lauded it as "realer than real" and that it "makes you remember that there really are people out there trying to kill America."

But is that true? Is "24" a real depiction of domestic and international spying and intrigue? Does it accurately portray the fight against identified foes such as al Qaeda?

Unfortunately, for me, the answer is no. During my journalist days, I met people who were involved in various aspects of government service: from diplomacy, to alphabet soup-style organizations, to those agencies whose names are supposedly never spoken. It became easy to determine which were the pretenders and which were the real deals because the former always made everything they did sound terribly exciting and world-affecting while the latter readily admitted much of their work was plodding and slow and years could go into projects that went nowhere.

After all, real spies and anti-terror agents probably aren't bragging to even small-time reporters about how they infiltrated a gang of assassins or about their "top secret" missions behind the lines of an enemy nation. If they did, such folks probably wouldn't last long with such loose tongues. Any watcher of "24" or reader of Tom Clancy novels knows - supposedly - that there are assassins whose targets are those who talk too much. Right?

Yet we have people who have been involved with ultra-secret, deep cover groups like the National Security Agency or NSA who have indeed lived to talk about it. One great example is John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" who details being recruited by the NSA for various nefarious activities that involved subverting other democracies and countries.

Call me jaded, but I find men and women like Perkins, as well as Colonel Patrick Lang, former Defense Intelligence Agency bigwig, and Ray McGovern, formerly of the CIA, who give us a broader picture of what our country does on the global front, both good and bad, the real patriots. These are people who worked in the spy trenches, so to speak, and came away with a unique perspective on how the American government does its business which should be required reading for all citizens.

Shows like "24", however, seem to have one major purpose beyond sheer entertainment. That is, they are there to scare us, with the knowledge that a frightened American is more willing:

- to support those who want no limits on Pentagon spending (when the Pentagon already gets more money than almost every other program put together)
- to accept changes to the American justice system that require less oversight, approve different rules to apply to someone accused of terrorism without the normal protections, and allow for indefinite detention of such people without any charges filed or evidence tendered
- to believe terrorists are around every corner, seated next to us on planes, and waiting to plant a bomb in mom's apple pie

Yet none of us ever does our best work and thought when scared. In fact, simple experience tells us that we often make pretty bad decisions and are much more likely to commit grievous mistakes when we operate under fear.

"You're wrong," my friend Jacob told me recently when we discussed the new season of "24", of which he is an ardent fan. "How can you say a great TV show plays into our fears?"

Have you ever noticed that Fox News is often featured on "24" shows? Fox News has many colorful aspects to their reputation, not the least of which is that they tend to rely heavily on fear as an essential aspect of patriotism. Fox News' programs feature spots like "Enemy of the State" segments which can sound a lot like what we saw in the 1950s with the rise of Joe McCarthyism and the so-called "red" scare.

But I'm not suggesting the entire purpose of "24" is to develop a loyal Fox News audience. Nor is Fox News the only media organization to notice they often get their best ratings or market share when their audience is frightened. But we do know that fear sells newspapers and both TV and radio news.

Back in the days of William Randolph Hearst, history suggests an entire war was bought and paid for by Hearst and his colleagues to drive up the circulation of their newspapers. That it worked for Hearst and his people should tell us that today, we need to be careful from whom we accept our news - and when TV dramas merge with headlines, we need to remember that there is a fine but definite line between fact and fiction.