Trying to make sure fiction doesn’t mirror reality, television executives are screening all programming to eliminate anything that resembles the Beltway sniper.

With the story of the random shootings in the Washington, D.C., suburbs dominating the news, even promotional messages for upcoming programs are drawing scrutiny.

So far, Fox has pulled an Internet pop-up ad for its drama “24,” which showed star Kiefer Sutherland through the cross hairs of a rifle sight.

And cable’s TNT has dropped a broadcast of the 1993 film “Sniper,” starring Tom Berenger.

Fox’s online promo was created and delivered to Yahoo a week before the shootings began, according to Fox spokesman Scott Grogin.

Grogin said that there was nothing in the first few episodes of “24,” which begins airing Oct. 29, that had to be changed. Last year, the series had to cut a scene showing an exploding airliner after the terror attacks of Sept. 11.

Other network executives say so far they haven’t had to edit programs or shuffle schedules to steer around the crisis. But the high number of crime dramas on the air this season has heightened awareness.

“It hasn’t been an issue yet,” said CBS spokesman Chris Ender. “At all times, we’re looking out for subject matter that could be sensitive to current events.”

“If we had a program that tracked so closely to a real situation, we would probably air it at a later date,” said Alan Wurtzel, executive vice president in charge of standards and practices at NBC.

As for future programs, “The antenna of our standards-and-practices people are up, and they are reviewing everything going forward,” Grogin said.