Castle Episode Last Night Contained Homeland Security Propaganda?

Did anyone else catch last night's episode of Castle on ABC? It was the second of a two part series and as the show went on I got a sick feeling that I was watching propaganda.

Adrian Pasdar guest stars as DHS agent Mark Fallon in search for Islamic terrorists in New York City with a dirty bomb.

The episode takes a couple turns:

a) Mark Fallon steps over the line several times in his questioning of suspects. Becket is horrified and even pulls a gun on him but Fallon explains that he doesn't like what he has to do but he does it to protect lives. They bring the audience to feel for Fallon by explaining that his wife rode down in Tower 2 as it collapsed while he was on the phone with her.

b) The most important piece of propaganda is that the terrorism is being committed by three special forces soldiers that did six stints in Afghanistan. It is explained that they became angry at the politicians for the way soldiers are being treated and that they need to give Americans another wake up call (and maybe this time things will go better). The plan is to frame a couple of Syrians. Later in the episode after they catch one of the soldiers they try to break him. They tell him they know its him and his buddies and it won't work as they try to find the location of the bomb. He replies that it doesn't matter because The Powers That Be have an agenda and him being the terrorist won't fit that agenda. That he will become a footnote in the investigation.

Finally the whole episode gives an impression of hopelessness and helplessness as they try to find and stop the dirty bomb. They of course pour over the primary and secondary (and tertiary) kill zones which will be the result of it going off and wonder to themselves how many other times this has happened even feeling for the poor agent Fallon - what stresses he must have to go through on a daily basis. At the end, pure an imaginary luck saves the day.

The whole thing just smelled of propaganda. Aside from Castle and Becket, it seemed the DHS would be the only force has protected us from extremism, that the agents are to be loved/admired/respected, and then branches off in to the main storyline which is in enacting the subject of the MIAC report on the extremist threats from returning soldiers abroad.

Castle is also one of the shows which participated in the week of 'volunteerism' in 2009 in which shows across the major networks were all were crafted to espouse government doctrines.

No doubt. The one liner that Kate threw out as almost an after thought. She points out that Syria is a hotbed of Alqaida recruiting. Stated matter of factly. As if there is no doubt and every one knows this.

I refrain from saying "all these shows" but so many of them are just chock full of propaganda. If not whole episodes at least little tid bits sprinkled through out.

One thread that seems prevalent lately are the shows with the coppers working along with a private party. Castle, The Mentalist, Lie to Me etc. The consultant who does not have to obey the same laws as the cops. This of course allows them the freedom to solve the cases while the police are hindered. I see this as subtle preparation for public acceptance of private police forces.
Propaganda? Ya think?

Originally posted by TerryMcGuire
No doubt. The one liner that Kate threw out as almost an after thought. She points out that Syria is a hotbed of Alqaida recruiting. Stated matter of factly. As if there is no doubt and every one knows this.

I forgot about that one, I thought the same thing as you though.

One thread that seems prevalent lately are the shows with the coppers working along with a private party. Castle, The Mentalist, Lie to Me etc. The consultant who does not have to obey the same laws as the cops. This of course allows them the freedom to solve the cases while the police are hindered. I see this as subtle preparation for public acceptance of private police forces.

That one had not occurred to me, I don't watch the Mentalist or Lie to Me but I know of them. I think you are right though I do not believe we will ever have the public police force problem en mass. I watched Robcop again the other week, it didn't occur to me back in the 80's (too young) when I watched it but its a very anti-corporate control of public interest movie.

I think the way things are going we are much more likely to just have our rights trampled by public officials controlled by corporate interests than see any direct control by corporations (as in Robocop). I don't think in general corporations are a problem though - there is a limited list of corporations that have an interest in controlling governments and I bet those stem from their ties to the banking families more than anything else.

The true nature of corporate power lies not in the hands of a few corporations but in the nature of the corporate structure over all. The big dogs at the top of the pyramid are certainly interbred with the international banking system, but the power they yield is most firmly entrenched within the bonds which tie all corporations together. They all need to play by the same rules or they cannot exist.

City and state police forces around the country are being scaled back do to budget cuts. This has been going on now for a number of years. The public sector no longer has the money to pay for sufficient policing. When people begin to scream for more police to protect them, the public sector will not be able to provide it because they have no money. Who does? The private sector. Private police forces will be easily formed if they are not already. Like our prison systems. A large portion of the prisons in the US are not run by the government but by private corporations.

Our war in the Middle East has shown another light on this privatizing. Blackwater and Wachenhut(sp) among many others have taken over a huge segment of the fighting and policing by contract to our government in a number of cases through the medium of larger corporations.

Put these together with the new powers of Homeland Security and it looks to me that it is only a matter of time before we are facing private police.

Remember Blackwater in New Orleans during Katrina?

My weak words cannot do justice to this argument. For your own development I can only recommend you doing your own studying into this question.