politics

The Day Shall Come is the latest film from Chris Morris, the maker of Four Lions, and tells the story...

Just like many federal agencies the Los Angeles Police Department have a dedicated entertainment liaison office for dealing with Hollywood....

Yesterday, NPR’s podcast Marketplace released a new episode titled How Chinese censorship changed “Top Gun” (and the rest of Hollywood)....

A video essay presenting my breakdown of Amazon's Jack Ryan, including how the CIA, DOD and other US government agencies were involved in producing it.  I outline some of the history between the government and Tom Clancy productions before breaking down how seasons 1 and 2 are propaganda for US foreign

It has been another curious week of half-truths, spin and outright falsehood as culture commentators get to grips with recent releases Jack Ryan (on Amazon), For all Mankind (on Apple TV) and Midway (in theaters now).

A recent report in Newsweek’s NewsGeek section has drawn attention to how video games, just like other forms of entertainment, can carry political messages.

For decades undercover British intelligence officers have infiltrated almost every notable political movement in the UK. In this episode I talk to Kit Klarenberg, an investigative journalist who has written extensively about this topic.

With just a week to go before season 2 of Amazon's Jack Ryan is released and the eponymous star John Krasinski has tried to downplay allegations that the show is propaganda for a US coup or war in Venezuela.  In an interview he trie

Today's entertainment news features an absolute gem of political hypocrisy: Vietnam's one party 'Communist' state has banned the animated kids' movie Abominable, and the Western media are heralding the decision, claiming that Vietnam are standing up to China's censorious one party 'Communist' state.  This is perhaps the dumbest employmen

The original Cultural Cold War has been the subject of numerous books and articles on both sides of the divide, but the new version has been almost entirely ignored.

Recently, Martha Bayles of The Atlantic published a hilariously misleading essay calling for Hollywood to produce more pro-American propaganda, in the face of the Chinese government’s increased role in the entertainment industry.

This week, I welcome to the show author and friend James Oddy to discuss the JFK assassination case and its treatment in the Oliver Stone movie JFK. We look at the psychological and political consequences of the assassination, as well as the political and cultural impact of the film.

Why is it that capitalist economies and cultures produce anti-capitalist products

Reading Time: 19 minutesEvery day there are stories about how interactions between people have become increasingly tribal — prompting individuals to trash facts, science, and objective reality in the service of a cause or a set of beliefs.It’s almost as if society has been taken over by c

Reading Time: 3 minutesJust because something can be done does not mean that it should be.

Reading Time: 5 minutesWhen signing the Social Security Act into law in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said  that it is impossible to ensure the entire population against all hazards, but that the new program would “give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.”

Captain Phillips tells the story of the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama - a US container ship - off the coast of Somalia, and the subsequent US Navy intervention that killed three of the pirates and arrested the fourth.  It is also one of the least historically accurate films

Lone Survivor is a piece of absolute militaristic schlock, starring the whiny-voiced Marky Mark Wahlberg as Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell - the only survivor of Operation Red Wings, a 2005 special forces joint operation in the summer of 2005.  Over 100 pages of Navy documents show their heavy involvement in the film and how they covered

GI Jane is a crude, clumsy attempt to show a 'woman's perspective' on being in the military, that ruined Demi Moore's career as a leading lady.  Little known until now is how the Pentagon negotiated with Ridley Scott to rewrite the script, and even though the film didn't qualify for military support some of the scr

Reading Time: 5 minutesLabor Day is a national holiday, but probably not one that generates much celebration in the Trump White House, which is moving to add regulatory insult to the existing injury of policies that depress the wages of low-income workers.

Why isn’t the ‘political film’ a genre of cinema? Hollywood puts out a consistent stream of politically-themed films, but rarely if ever promotes them as such.

Reading Time: 9 minutesHappy Women’s Equality Day. One hundred years ago today, the US officially got around to giving half the American adult population the right to vote. The battle wasn’t easy.

In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, President Bush’s chief spin doctor and senior advisor Karl Rove enlisted Hollywood’s help in selling the War on Terror.

Reading Time: 5 minutesJust a few weeks after the devastating shooting in El Paso, Democrats in the Florida House of Representatives have called for a special session to deal with the issue of gun control — and they think the votes could be there to finally see action by state lawmakers t

Reading Time: 4 minutesIn an attempt to balance Alaska’s books, Gov.

Amazon Prime's The Boys is not only the most enjoyable TV show I've seen all year, it's also the most subversive.  While it will appeal to audiences suffering from superhero fatigue after more than a decade of relentless Marvel and DC products, it is so much mo

Did we really go to the moon?

Reading Time: 2 minutesHow and why did Jeffrey Epstein die? Did he commit suicide to escape an embarrassing trial and a lengthy prison sentence as a child rapist? Or did he know too much about too many powerful people who did not want to be implicated? In any case, any serious person would admit that the timing was most convenient.

I recently joined Henri from the Fortress on a Hill podcast for our latest discussion on military movies.

Reading Time: 5 minutesWhile people from across the political spectrum have called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump on various grounds, the American public at large hasn’t warmed to the idea.

The 2006 arrests of the Toronto 18 was a key moment in the post-9/11 war on terror. It helped internationalise the war effort and added Canada to the list of supposed terrorist targets. This week I examine the life and work of the main Canadian intelligence informant inside the Toronto 18 – Mubin Shaikh.

Reading Time: 2 minutesImagine giving 33.5 million American workers a raise, helping 6.2 million ease the pinch of poverty, and increasing the total annual wages for minimum-wage workers by $92.5 billion.