Government lawyers cited a TV character more often than the Constitution when justifying torture.

Evidence

According to Dahlia Lithwick of Newsweek, the Bush administration lawyers who designed interrogation methods in the War on Terror and redefined torture cited Jack Bauer more often than the U.S. Constitution. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff gave a speech at a Heritage Foundation dinner, “Fact vs. Fiction in the War on Terror,” on the ways in which 24 does and does not mirror real life. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 296

Categorization

• QUESTION: Is Lithwick’s claim verifiable in the original Newsweek piece? The specific count of Bauer citations would be worth chasing.
• XREF: Connects to Baudrillard’s idea that media simulations precede and shape reality — the hyperreal becoming more influential than institutions.