CSM: Does 24 encourage torture?

Apparently everybody had 24 on the mind at the same time. I mentioned the LAT story on 24 and torture earlier this morning. Well, the Christian Science Monitor also has a 24 story, which references a story in the New Yorker:

Does "24" encourage US interrogators to "torture" detainees? [CSM, 2.12.2007]
Some top military and civilian experts say yes, but others call the accusation 'ludicrous.'

The Fox Broadcasting Company television show "24," which for the past five years has detailed "a single, panic-laced day" in which Jack Bauer -– a heroic counter-terrorism agent, played by Kiefer Sutherland -– must stop "a conspiracy that imperils the nation," is one of the most popular shows in the U.S. But it may also be encouraging real-life interrogators to "go too far" when they question terrorism suspects.

This week's New Yorker features a story about Joel Surnow, the show's creator and a self-described "right-wing nut," and includes the information that last November Mr. Surnow and the show's creative staff were visited by a brigadier general and three top military and FBI interrogators, as well as human rights groups, who told them that the show's graphic depictions of the torture of suspects was "hurting efforts to train recruits in effective interrogation techniques and is damaging the image of the U.S. around the world."