Press Action

Radical Double Blackmail

Posted 09/06 |

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Re; your opening paragraph on police state propaganda, see also for overt efforts to demonize the “other,” shows produced by Joel Surnow, “Nikita” and “24” which while offering the usual crass political propaganda, explore/promote new avenues in totalitarian police statism and brutality (by “see,” I don’t really mean watch them!).

Posted by Rhino Rick from Tokyo, Japan on 09/06 at 06:18 PM

I actually dig 24 to be quite honest. Even with Lynne Cheney’s imprimatur, it is quite innovative as form.

Posted by j cummings from on 09/06 at 08:54 PM

Aesthetically or as entertainment, I would agree 24 is interesting (and even progressive: a black president), however, it is still a pretty crude form of political propaganda, no matter how you slice it and endorses the technological police state.

Posted by Rhino Rick from Tokyo, Japan on 09/07 at 06:05 PM

Endorses or portrays? That is an interesting thing about art in a police state. In fairness, I konw that Kiefer Sutherland is a lifelong member of the NDP in Canada, and is Tommy Douglas (Canadian Socialist legend) son in law. It is somewhat like Eisenstien’s films that were ostensibly tributes to Stalin, but contained critiques...(no not at the same artistic level, but I think that sometimes when an artist submits to the overall propaganda rules, culturally, they can sometimes be all the more subversive from the inside - Douglas Sirk’s womans’ films come to mind)

Posted by j cummings from on 09/08 at 09:03 AM

Tommy Douglas was Kiefer Sutherland’s grandfather.

Posted by rufusrouser from on 09/08 at 08:49 PM