Hollywood's Double Standard: 'Redacted' Praised, '24' Has to Move Left

Photo of Ken Shepherd.

The writers' strike is giving conservative fans of "24" a temporary reprieve from a maddening, preachy plots planned in the new season. So argues Bryan Preston at Hot Air, noting that Hollywood praises liberal anti-military, anti-war on terror fare like "Redacted," while it can't abide a pro-American, pro-war on terror far like "24," despite the latter being vastly more successful as a commercial enterprise than the former.

Preston notes that Day 7 of "24" opens by featuring lead character Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) defending his actions before a congressional committee that will doubtless rail against his methods in obtaining intelligence from terrorists. He notes this merely gives fictional liberal senators air time to echo arguments "24" fans here time and again from real life liberal politicians and the mainstream media (emphasis mine):

By saying Jack has “nothing to apologize for,” they’re saying in essence “We’re sorry but we can’t just unwrite all those tough things he did in the so-called War on Terror and we can’t just send him off to Africa so we’ll have him defend them.” This will give the producers the chance to write speech after speech denouncing Bauer, the CTU and the real war, but mostly the real war, and invent maverick Republican senators and liberal Democrat senators and cast them as the real good guys. There will probably be a “you can’t handle the truth” moment, but only to give Jack the chance to bellow before the whole thing comes to some weak and unsatisfying ending. And read between the lines and that female character will be played by Janeane Garofalo, moonbat extraordinaire. 24 not only seems to be going very very far from the norms and ideas that fueled its early seasons, it seems to be morphing directly into Redacted lite.

Speaking of which, by the way, there has still been no reported Hollywood soul-searching over Redacted or any of the other anti-war troop-smearing films that have been released in the past couple of years. Depicting the troops as rapists and war criminals is evidently fine with Hollywood; depicting a strong and ongoing response to terrorism, not so much.

As long as this attitude remains prevalent in Hollywood, long live the writers strike.

—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters


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Which is exactly why I had

Which is exactly why I had decided this past summer I wasn't wasting time or anger on this season's "24" ... and I wasn't/am not alone ...

I love 24, but to me the

I love 24, but to me the last couple of seasons got a tad tedious. If they go all preachy, the show will lose lots of viewers.

What is wrong with Hollywood these days? Up is down....

I made the mistake of going to a movie last weekend. I do not even recall the name of it, fairly worhtless acting and a forgettable plot...

But the thing that TRULY irritated me was the preview for the movie "Stop Loss." That I remember since it put me in a poor attitude for the rest of the evening.

Apparently the plot line is that of the "Victimized Soldier" again who returns home from a hellish tour in Iraq only to be placed on stop loss and ordered to return with a new unit to the combat zone for another year in combat.  He either flees to Canada or some such rot with great drama.

I cannot even tell where to begin...

1.)  I know soldiers who have been placed on stop loss status.  None have been deployed to the combat zone, rather they have been given temporary positions preparing other troops going over until removed from stop loss status.  GEE, WE ARE FORCED TO DO THIS BECAUSE theCLINTON ADMINISTRATION CUT BONE IN THE LAST ROUND OF DEFENSE CUTS.  But I doubt I will see this in the plotline.

2.)  The guys I have worked with, IF they were stop lossed in such a manner would pack their rucks and get on the bird going to theater.  They would not be happy as they had other plans, but they would do it.

3.)  None of the returning combat veterans I have served with would dream of fleeing to Canada, and would SHUN the miscreants who have fled to Canada if they came across them on the street.

4.)  I wonder if Stop loss will have such a scene were the main character is humiliated by honorable veterans while he cowers?

Down goes Bauer

Well one of my favorite shows of all time has finally jumped the shark. R.I.P. "24". One more reason that I hope this writer's strike takes down the whole of Hollywood. Keep it up guys, you've almost destroyed your industry. I'm rooting for you! 

You support the troops by supporting the mission! If you don't support the mission, have the guts to say you don't support the troops.

24

I was much less excited about this 24 season starting than I have been in the past, and I'm a huge fan.

IMO, the show started going downhill after S4, with S5 being ho-hum and S6 being downright awful.

24 is Toast

Yeah I really want to watch Congressional testimony by Jack Bauer.......that is why I tune into football too so I can watch Keeter Olberman whine and I just love it when Prison Break interrupts an escape so we can have a 20 minute discussion on human population control. (The last does not happen and that is why Prison Break gets good ratings.)

24 is leftist period. Why do I state that? The entire program is completely against the only person who acts right wing and that is Jack Bauer. They continuously do all they can to thwart his actions.
I honestly hope that the writers strike continues so we do not have to watch 24 with that idiot Jeanine Garfawhatever and Green Keifer.

If you look at the cast showing up in other programs
........that pretty well is an indication that 24 is done as a series.

I say thank God for that.........as the Sarah Conner Chronicles are a 1000 times better..........Summer Glau is awesome as the Terminator!

 

*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS

Jack Bauer I don't care what

Jack Bauer

I don't care what they try to write about Jack's actions. He is still the MAN!