Televised Torture | Sojourners

Televised Torture

I read with interest Jesse Holcomb's commentary "Tortured Logic" (June 2007) on the television series 24. During its first season, my husband and I were avid watchers, sitting on the edge of our chairs each week as the tension built with each episode. Then came the first torture scene. We were very uncomfortable with it and hoped it was a one-time aberration. When it became clear that torture would be routine and increasingly graphic, we opted out and have not watched any further episodes. My husband was tortured by the North Vietnamese during his captivity from 1968 to 1973, and he found these torture episodes on 24 (and on other programs) repugnant. We both find it horrifying that torture is now routinely portrayed as part of television "entertainment."

Eileen Norrington
Titusville, Florida

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Sojourners Magazine August 2007
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