{"id":217598,"date":"2022-08-08T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=217598"},"modified":"2022-08-05T05:38:32","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T04:38:32","slug":"how-the-pentagon-dictates-hollywood-storylines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/08\/how-the-pentagon-dictates-hollywood-storylines\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Pentagon Dictates Hollywood Storylines"},"content":{"rendered":"

New documentary discloses the ways western publics are softened up for aggressive, global US militarism\u00a0through the Pentagon\u2019s influence over thousands of films and TV shows<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n

4 Aug 2022 – <\/em>In what should have been an extraordinary television confession this month, John Bolton<\/a>, national security adviser in the previous administration of President Donald Trump<\/a>, admitted to CNN in passing that he had helped to plot the overthrow of foreign governments while in office.<\/p>\n

Dismissing the idea that Trump had attempted a coup at the Capitol with the January 6 riots, Bolton told anchor Jake Tapper<\/a>: \u201cAs somebody who has helped plan coups d\u2019etat, not here [in Washington] but, you know, other places, it takes a lot of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an admission that he and others in the administration had committed the \u201csupreme international crime\u201d<\/a>, as the Nuremberg trials at the end of the Second World War defined an unprovoked attack on the sovereignty of another nation. But Tapper treated the comment as largely unremarkable.<\/p>\n

Washington can do out in the open what is denied to other countries only because of an exceptional assumption that the normal constraints of international law and the rules of war do not apply to the global superpower.<\/p>\n

The US is reported<\/a> to have carried out \u201cregime change\u201d in more than 70 countries since the Second World War. In recent years, it has been involved either directly or indirectly in wars in Afghanistan<\/a>, Iraq<\/a>, Libya<\/a>, Syria<\/a>, Yemen<\/a>and Ukraine. Bolton himself has boasted of his involvement in efforts through 2019 to oust Nicolas Maduro\u2019s government in Venezuela, trying to install<\/a> as president Washington\u2019s own preferred candidate, Juan Guaido.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon outspends<\/a> the next nine countries combined and maintains some 800 military bases<\/a> dotted across the globe. And yet, Congress is poised once again<\/a> to add tens of billions of dollars to the defence budget.<\/p>\n

A new documentary suggests why western publics remain so docile both about the US being in a state of almost permanent war, and about it expending ever-vaster sums on its war machine.<\/p>\n

Secret guiding hand<\/h3>\n

According to Theaters of War<\/i><\/a>, the US Department of Defense does not just subtly influence Hollywood\u2019s depiction of US wars to present them in a more favourable light. The Pentagon actively demands<\/a> script oversight and dictates storylines.\u00a0In practice, it has been waging a full-spectrum propaganda war against western audiences to soften them up to support aggressive, global US militarism.<\/p>\n

The documentary, based on data uncovered by recent Freedom of Information requests from UK investigative journalist Tom Secker and academic Matthew Alford, reveals the astonishing fact that the Pentagon has been the secret, guiding hand behind thousands of films and TV shows in recent decades.<\/p>\n

Many more movies never reach the screen because the Defense Department\u2019s entertainment liaison office refuses to cooperate, believing the wrong messages are being promoted.<\/p>\n