Torture Chic: Why Is the Media Glorifying Inhumane, Sadistic Behavior?

[marmar]

Torture Chic: Why Is the Media Glorifying Inhumane, Sadistic Behavior?

By Maura Moynihan, AlterNet. Posted February 3, 2009.

During the Bush years there was an increase in torture imagery in popular culture -- a growing acceptance of violence as routine and effective.



In his first days in office, President Barack Obama took a pen and signed executive orders halting the use of torture, shutting Guantanamo and banning secret CIA prisons overseas, as he vowed to fight terrorism "in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals."

Shortly thereafter, a poll showed that Americans did not overwhelmingly support the president's rejection of the Bush administration's use of torture as an instrument of the state.

In their zeal to legalize torture and trounce the Bill of Rights, the Bush team crafted a media campaign to sell the "War on Terror" as a righteous quest retribution for 9/11, inciting fear of future carnage to justify violating the Geneva protocols and the U.S. Army Field Manual. While the Bush torture policy made stunning progress through the courts and the legislature, with the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act of 2006, there followed an increase in the normalization of torture images in popular culture, a growing acceptance of violence as effective, routine.

When photographs of torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib appeared in 2004, Bush's approval ratings sank, yet torture themes multiplied in film and TV. From 2002 through 2005, the Parents Television Council counted 624 torture scenes in prime time, a six-fold increase. UCLA's Television Violence Monitoring Project reports "torture on TV shows is significantly higher than it was five years ago and the characters who torture have changed. It used to be that only villains on television tortured. Today, "good guy" and heroic American characters torture -- and this torture is depicted as necessary, effective and even patriotic". .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/124739/torture_chic%3A_why_is_the_media_glorifying_inhumane%2C_sadistic_behavior/

[MADem]

1. Wasn't that stupid 24 show loaded with torture?

I watched about five minutes of it, and that was more than enough torture for me....

[azul]

2. That is what is really frightening, that this psy-ops worked on the US public.

That we couldn't declare a real all out war and so could get the backing of the US population to support illegal military and intelligence operations where ever business interests decided to lead. Be safe at home and condone the dirty work that allows such.

Is the US humanistic or business interested as a priority?

[bertman]

3. If you even have to ask this question you must have been living as a hermit for the

last 40 years. The corporate media IS THE FASCIST STATE. The corporate media IS THE PROPAGANDA TOOL for the corporatocracy. That's why they love pushing the "torture works" theme.