Gabler: '24' Creator 'Right-Wing Fanatic;' Hall: Show Plays to 'Paranoia' [Video]

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Interesting panel discussion about "24" on last evening's Fox News Watch. On the one hand, lefty Neal Gabler actually defended the show. Mentioning that he likes Keith Olbermann "very much," Gabler continued:

"I disagree with Keith Olbermann in this situation. I look at '24' as being like a 527 [tax-exempt groups that engage in political activity]. It's bringing up that issue about terrorism, it certainly serves the Bush administration. But unlike the 9-11 show that was on ABC which specifically cited Bush as a great hero, this does not do that. It is entertainment, and I don't think it ought to be censored, or pulled off the air, or anything like that."

At the same time, Gabler later claimed: "I had dinner with the creator of '24' [note: IMDB lists Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran as co-creators], and let me say, he was a right-wing fanatic. Let's not pretend that he isn't."

Joshed Cal Thomas: "My kind of guy!"

Jane Hall considers it paranoid to be concerned about the threat of nuclear terrorism: "They're playing to the paranoia of this age, and conservative people are picking up on it and saying 'this could happen here. Mushroom cloud if you don't let Bush do what we think Bush should be doing.'"

Jim Pinkerton offered an ominous closing take: "An attack like that is coming, and we all know it."

View edited video clip here.Contact

Mark at mark@gunhill.net

[kalee]

ping

[WKB]

Maybe gabler gobbles goobers

[TET1968]

Nadia.....keep an eye on the beautiful, Arabic speaking team chief who's broken protocol record would have gotten her fired if it had not been for Chloe.

[Bushiefan]

And don't forget Dee Dee Myers.

[AmishDude]

Somebody posted pictures on the live thread of the end of the episode and Nadia was the only one without a shocked look on her face.

[Sender]

"It's bringing up that issue about terrorism, it certainly serves the Bush administration."

The left claims they will make America safer and implement all the 9/11 commission recommendations, but any mention of terrorism helps Bush.

Somehow I don't feel safer with the let's-not-talk-about-terrorism Democrats in charge.

[Beckwith]

And don't forget Dee Dee Myers.

What I will never forget about Dee Dee Myers was her comment, made on Inauguration Day, January 20, 1993 -- "We won the election, we can do ANYTHING we want."

And, as history shows -- they did.

[cricket]

He is surely a hired gun. Who hired him is the million dollar question.

Could well be; other side of the speculation here; just as easily could be an earlier strike.

And why not; whatever happens; from here on in; they can have no doubt that whatever disaster they incur, on our behalf; it will be 'spun' their way.

Are you thinking close to 'Convention time'? Or some other meaningful Islamic marker?

[gcruse]

" So liberals believe that if they don't think about terrorism it won't exist."

When I was young, my tiny little redheaded neighbor Peggy Renfro used to squat down in their front yard and take a pee. Peggy was careful, though, to keep her eyes squeezed tightly shut believing if she couldn't see the people driving by, the people couldn't see her.

[Matchett-PI]

bttt

[Bushiefan]

You are absolutely right. Their arrogance is never questioned or answered. We need to get a back bone.

[Excellence]

But unlike the 9-11 show that was on ABC which specifically cited Bush as a great hero

I don't remember this. Is he talking about the Path to 9/11?

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Think so but can't really say.

[wildehunt]

A Nuclear Filmography..

Stanley Kramer's 1959 antiwar movie looks like everything Kramer did: subtle as a car wreck but undeniably affecting. Gregory Peck plays a submarine commander looking for survivors in Australia after a nuclear holocaust. Ava Gardner is among them and, somewhat improbably under the circumstances, becomes his love interest. Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins are among the characters awaiting death from the gradual spread of radiation from the north. One might "scoff at Kramer's implicit finger-wagging about nuclear politics in this mad, mad, mad, mad world, but it is hard to stop watching this compelling drama all the same. --Tom Keogh ~ at Amazon

Two important films are Kurosawa Akira's "Ikimono no kiroku" (Record of a Living Being, aka "I Live in
Fear" , 1955) and Imamura Shohei's Kuroi ame (Black Rain, 1989).

Not to mention Godzilla which makes reference to nuclear destruction, and uses the premise that H-bomb testing accounts for Godzilla's resurrection from the primordial ooze and that the dinosaur gone wild has radioactive breath.

Sidney Lumet's Fail Safe worked the concept of an "accidental" nuclear exchange.

Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the bomb, lent a humorous bent.. who can forget Slim Pickens' historical 8 seconds...

"The Day After" was disturbing and controversial as was "Testament"

"War Day," chronicled the destruction of the United States and its descent into third world destitution by a "limited strike" which vaporizes NYC and DC and parts of Texas.

The British film by Mick Jackson "Threads", takes "The Day After's" story a step further by portraying England blown to the dark ages of mutation and devolution.

Edward Zwick's "Special Bulletin," is about a crazed anti-nuke college professor who creates a Bomb and proceeds to hold Charleston as nuclear hostage until the US unilaterally disarms.

1989's "By Dawn's Early Light", a made-for-TV movie was an in depth portrayal of nuclear war..

Daniel Percival produced FX's "Smallpox," a vision of aterrorist release of the smallpox virus to devastating effect and "Dirty War" portraying what happens after terrorists release a dirty bomb that spreads radiation throughout central London.
Both are "what if" scenarios that serve as a warning for preparation to citizens and governments.
"Dirty War" was recently on HBO.. it's riveting and current.

We see and create on TV and in film the things we already know or suspect about nuclear warfare, what we fear and what we believe.

We know in our nitemares that art imitates life.