Whatever It Takes

The politics of the man behind “24.”

by Jane Mayer, February 19, 2007

The office desk of Joel Surnow—the co-creator and executive producer of “24,” the popular counterterrorism drama on Fox—faces a wall dominated by an American flag in a glass case. A small label reveals that the flag once flew over Baghdad, after the American invasion of Iraq, in 2003. A few years ago, Surnow received it as a gift from an Army regiment stationed in Iraq; the soldiers had shared a collection of “24” DVDs, he told me, until it was destroyed by an enemy bomb. “The military loves our show,” he said recently.

The full article in the New Yorker was published on Feb. 19, 2007 [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/02/19/070219fa_fact_mayer]

A video discussion of “24″ and torture is posted on You Tube

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