My Take | How Washington co-opts Hollywood and the news media
- Latest exposé of Pentagon documents show how Washington manipulates an ostensibly free and independent media industry
If you were a fan of the US hit spy series Homeland and wondered why its last season in 2020 ended the way it did with Russian agents and Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, the latest release of confidential Pentagon documents offers some clues.
The US Department of Defence (DoD), it turns out, routinely demands script changes to major movie, cable, and TV productions to ensure favourable portrayal and ideological alignment. It does the same with media groups over news coverage. Under a Freedom of Information request, it was compelled to release 133 pages of documents covering its liaisons with Hollywood and cable channels over two years, between 2016 and 2017. The full file was subsequently leaked on Reddit.
It has long been known that the DoD and other government departments such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) not only support film and cable productions, but also actively intervene and manipulate their contents.
Here’s a fascinating timeline on how the military worked to make sure a storyline of the final season of Homeland, starring Claire Danes, was acceptable.
On the week of January 4, 2019, the DoD notes said: “Received request for US Army support of final season of Homeland. Army has declined to support based on major problems noted in scripts.”