Political correctness infects '24'

Well, no question about it – it was an exciting season finale for the action-packed Fox series "24."

Jack Bauer saved the country from yet another cataclysm. There was an explanation for what turned former hero Tony Almeida bad. We got a hint of how Jack will be saved from exposure to a deadly bio-weapon so he can return next season. And the show continues to be an entertaining forum for the national debate over coercive interrogations – even as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remains in the cross hairs of her own self-induced scandal on the subject.

But there is something very sad about the way "24" is going.

The single best show on television has become corrupted by political correctness. It is becoming increasingly difficult to watch with a straight face.

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First came the so-called "public service" spots fighting the phantom crisis of man-made, catastrophic "climate change," formerly "global warming." But the public is not served by these ads at all – because there is no man-made, catastrophic climate change taking place. This is not science. It's irresponsible statist propaganda designed to drive free people into servitude and dependence on Big Government. Of course, the producers of "24" and the Fox television network have every right to promote bad science and bad politics. But this is just some friendly advice: You are alienating your base of viewers.

Next came the casting of Janeane Garofalo. This former Air America talk host is more noted for her outrageously offensive and misguided political activism than her comedy and acting ability. On April 16, 2009, she insulted millions of participants in tea parties by calling them "racist rednecks" during an interview with Keith Olbermann. I would prefer not to help pay the salary of people like Garofalo – and the day of reckoning is coming to Fox and "24" if the producers continue to insist on poking their fingers in the eye of their target audience with moves like this.

But the pièce de résistance for me came in the final show Monday night. The show has been known for years to go to extraordinary lengths to portray bad guys as mostly right-wing, military white men. You would be hard-pressed to find any terrorists on "24" who speak Arabic or follow Islam. This season, the right-wing, military white guys actually tried to set up two Muslim men to take the fall for their evil deeds. In the process, Jack Bauer met a compassionate Muslim imam. And guess who he summoned for a death-bed confession of his sins? You guessed it – the Muslim imam.

Some friends and I were joking about the heavy-handed political correctness intruding into the plot lines, cast and public service messages of "24" earlier this season. One of them suggested the show might end with Jack converting to Islam. We all laughed. It would make for a good "Saturday Night Live" spoof, we all thought.

But darn if that isn't very close to what actually happened in the season finale.

Is "24" trying to play it for laughs? Why are the producers tempting fate by compromising with a great entertainment concept to score a few cheap political points? Don't they recognize how transparent and goofy these ideas are?

I know "24" has been around for a long time – and all good things must come to an end. But it would almost be better to end the show with a bang than to allow it to suffer a slow and agonizing death from a thousand pinpricks of political correctness.