Television propaganda

By Matthew Alford for the Independent. The US government and Hollywood have always been close. Washington DC has long been a source of intriguing plots for filmmakers and LA has been a generous provider of glamour and glitz to the political class. But just how dependant are these two centres of American influence? Scrutiny of previously hidden documents reveals that the answer is: very. We can now show that the relationship between US national security and Hollywood is much deeper and more political than anyone has ever acknowledged. It is a matter of public record that the Pentagon has had an entertainment liaison office since 1948. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) established a similar position in 1996. . .more than 800 feature films received support from the US Government’s Department of Defence (DoD) . . . On television, we found over 1,100 titles received Pentagon backing – 900 of them since 2005. . . .