Kevin Drum chronicles the schizophrenic political personality of 24. This seems to be another case where mass media ventures seeking the widest audiences find it best not to display clear partisan loyalties. Assuming a bell-shaped distribution of political ideologies among possible viewers, some kind of ambiguous middle position will turn off the least number of people and allow you to hook the biggest audience.
This sort of market-driven nonpartisanship is okay when it's going on in the construction of fictional works, which aren't under the same responsibilities to represent the truth, though it'd be much better if they did. (I haven't watched the show much -- I unplugged my TV when Buffy went off the air -- but I'd be happy if they gave some nod to the fact that torture gives you terribly unreliable information. Has this point ever been made on 24?) In any case, the real problem is when it infects political reporting and commentary, which are supposed to be grounded in reality. If mass media outlets see that the least risky route to profit involves appeasing the pre-existing political views of their audience, they'll likely get it wrong when truth lies mostly on one side of the debate or the other.
