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ClandesTime 197 – The Spycops Scandal

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. We discuss how many of these undercover officers got involved in romantic relationships with the people they were spying on, and how this became a national scandal. We also analyse the BBC documentary series True Spies, highlighting its political biases, before trying to answer the critical question of what we can do about this.

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Jack Ryan, Midway, and For All Mankind

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). We will start with Jack Ryan, because I’ve spent the last several weeks putting ...
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The Politics and Censorship of Video Games

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. The article by Andrew Whalen criticises Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for grossly distorting the Highway of Death incident, depicting it as a Russian war crime ...
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ClandesTime 197 – The Spycops Scandal

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. We discuss how many of these undercover officers got involved in romantic relationships with the people ...
Read more

Swearing, Drugs and Ethnic Stereotypes: Why the US Military Rejected Good Morning, Vietnam

Good Morning, Vietnam is perhaps the most popular Vietnam war film ever made. Loosely based on the real life experiences of Army Forces Radio Service DJ Adrian Cronauer it takes a sideways look at the war that is often sardonic and satirical. The US military's file on the movie reveals ...
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US Coast Guard’s Hollywood Office Takes 3 YEARS to Release 20 Pages of Documents

In March 2016 I put in a FOIA request with the US Coast Guard.  Several appeals, a lot of ignored emails and well over three years later they finally released just 20 pages of documents on the activities of their entertainment liaison office.  I thought the CIA's FOIA office was ...
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ClandesTime 196 – The Final Countdown

The Final Countdown is a classic of good bad cinema, featuring an aircraft carrier that goes through a wormhole and goes back in time to the day before Pearl Harbor was attacked. In this episode I review and analyse the film, which benefited from full DOD support. From the ridiculous ...
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How the Hot Shots! Producers Tried (and Failed) to Fool the Pentagon

In March 1991 the producers of Hot Shots! An Important Movie contacted the US Marine Corps looking to film one shot of a flyover of a corner of Camp Pendleton, but their request was rejected.  It seems the spoof nature of the movie caused some ripples in the ELO pond ...
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MI5 (Wrongly) Suspected Odeon Cinema Chain of Being Front for Commie Spies

A 1940s MI5 file shows that British intelligence suspected that the Odeon chain of cinemas was a front organisation providing cover for Soviet spies to get into the UK.  Proving once again that it is the intelligence services who are the biggest conspiracy theorists of all, this suspicion was based ...
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Jack Ryan Star John Krasinski Tries to Dispell Allegations of Propaganda

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 tried to make out that the new ...
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‘While the Script is Somewhat Clichéd, We Are Not Movie Critics’ – DOD Memo on The Heroes of Desert Storm

There aren't very many films about the first Gulf War, which is ironic because if ever there was a war for PR purposes, that was it.  While Jarhead and Three Kings were rejected by the Pentagon's Hollywood office, one film that did benefit from military support was The Heroes of ...
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Subscriber Podcast #35 – China, Censorship and South Park

Over the last few weeks a storm has been brewing about the Chinese government’s censorship of American movies, as well as several countries banning or censoring the Chinese co-production Abominable. On this month’s subscriber-only podcast I analyse these controversies for their double standards and general stupidity, and review the recent ...
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Vietnam Bans a Movie, But Somehow It is China’s Fault?

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 employment of ...
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