Jonah Goldberg on the latest torture report: “In countless films and TV shows the good guys — not the bad guys — do things to get important information that makes all some [see update] of the harsh methods and allegedly criminal techniques in the IG report seem like an extra scoop of ice cream and a Swedish massage. In NYPD Blue, The Wire, The Unit, 24 and on and on, suspects are beaten, threatened, terrified. In some instances they are simply straight-up tortured.

…

Now, I know I will get a lot of “it’s just a movie” or “TV shows aren’t real” email from people. At least I have every other time I’ve made this point. So let me concede a point I’ve never disputed while making one these folks don’t seem to grasp. If such practices, in the contexts depicted, were as obviously and clearly evil as many on the left claim, Hollywood could never get away with having the good guys employ them.”

So by this logic—it can’t be that bad if heroes do it—
•Stealing is OK, because a lot of caper films take the crooks’ side.
•Adultery is OK, because that sure happens a lot.
•Rape is OK, because there are romance novels that show rape as sexy (a lot of people actually do buy this).
And, of course, some things that have been detailed about Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in the Bush gulag have been a lot worse than you’d see on TV (plus, of course, they happen to innocent people).

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