Fictional torture depictions on 24 intertwined with real Abu Ghraib revelations.

Evidence

The controversy surrounding 24’s depiction of torture arose shortly after the revelation that U.S. military personnel had tortured inmates at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. Leaked photos showed Iraqi prisoners being physically, psychologically, and sexually abused. The horrific photos intensified the debate about whether or not the U.S. government was sanctioning torture. In the view of the right-wing commentator Rush Limbaugh, the photos did not reveal torture but rather the U.S. military “blowing off steam”; he questioned what the public was so worried about since the torture victims “are trying to kill us.” — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 290

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Baudrillard’s representation-reality collapse and to debates about how fiction legitimizes real state violence.
• SHARE: Limbaugh dismissing Abu Ghraib as ‘blowing off steam’ is a striking primary-source quote worth sharing with someone studying political rhetoric or media framing of torture.