Released Documents Show NSA Actually Surprised To Find Itself Portrayed Negatively In Popular Culture
from the we're-just-massive-dragnet-deployers,-not-murderous-goons! dept
The NSA may know lots of stuff about lots of people, but it's still fairly clueless about how the world works. Documents obtained by Buzzfeed's Andrew Kaczynski show the NSA was shocked to find it hadn't been portrayed more favorably in a major motion picture.
The National Security Agency attempted a public relations makeover in 1998 via the Jerry Bruckheimer–produced spy thriller Enemy of the State, but the agency was disappointed it was portrayed as the “bad guys” in the film, internal emails between agency officials obtained by BuzzFeed News through the Freedom of Information Act show.Even in the halcyon pre-Snowden days, it was unlikely a massive government spy agency would be depicted as "lawful neutral," much less "good" in any form of entertainment media. Shadowy agencies make for great conspiracy theories and potentially riveting entertainment (as for "Enemy of the State," YMMV…). Certainly, it's unlikely that the NSA would kill a congressional representative for opposing surveillance expansion and it probably doesn't have any "goons" to send out to intimidate witnesses (that's more of a CIA thing...). But for the NSA to expect it would be portrayed as the heroes -- despite holding meetings with the producers before the film's release -- is a pretty good indication of how isolated it is from the general public.
One employee wrote in 1998, “Unfortunately, the truth isn’t always as riveting as fiction and creative license may mean that ‘the NSA,’ as portrayed in a given production, bears little resemblance to the place where we all work.”
This brief burst of reality led to a facesaving effort by the NSA, spearheaded by Michael Hayden, who invited CNN to profile the agency to counteract the negative portrayal. Fighting pop culture with pitched puff pieces is a terrible way to rehabilitate a reputation, but that's the NSA for you. It's never going to win hearts and minds. (I was originally going to add some qualifiers to the previous sentence but couldn't find any that worked.) Any effort expended in this area is wasted.
Even more hilarious than the NSA's dismay at this completely predictable pop culture portrayal is its employees' complaints about violated privacy.
“I was standing in the parking lot staring like an idiot, wondering why this helicopter with some strange object underneath it was hovering over me,” one employee complained after a production helicopter flew above the agency to get establishing shots. “Will Touchstone be getting in touch with me so I can get paid for my appearance in this movie? Because I have no intention of allowing my image to be used for free,” the employee concluded, unaware of public access laws…Yes, you can fly an aircraft over the NSA headquarters and no one can do anything about it. As long as you follow the FAA guidelines, you can capture establishing shots or vehicles in the parking lot or any "idiot" staring at your aircraft. The NSA is not a military base and very little about what goes on inside can be determined from 500 feet above the building.
One employee fretted that their car would now be seen in the film, while another complained that his window blinds were up during filming.
Still, as Kaczynski notes, the negative portrayal of the agency and the intrusion of unwanted aerial "surveillance" did little to stifle employee enthusiasm for the upcoming film. Unfortunately, the released documents do not contain post-viewing comments from NSA staff after they'd shelled out $5 for the dubious privilege of watching their big screen counterparts murder a congressman and intimidate a witness.
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Filed Under: culture, enemy of the state, nsa, pr, propaganda, surveillance
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nsa: the movie
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Re: nsa: the movie
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Re: nsa: the movie
They occasionally sparkle. Okay, work with me here: Will Ferrell as "vegetarian" vampire Waldo Tepes, who works for the NSA parsing the data they hoover up. When a seventeen year old high-schooler jokes about joining ISIS she triggers a search that brings her to Will's attention. When he sees her social media photos he begins to look for more personal information about her. Then he discovers that her horrible ex-boyfriend has released some intimate images and videos, etc., online in an effort to shame her...
Shall we crowdfund it?
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Re: nsa: the movie
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Re: nsa: the movie
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Non drug induced delusions might by symptoms of...something...call someone
Of course they point the finger at everybody else along with terrorists, child pornographers, copyright pirates, and people who threaten police with cellphones, who apparently are not part of everybody else; self fulfilling a self fulfilling property.
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Re: Non drug induced delusions might by symptoms of...something...call someone
They try to own the state apparatus. This includes legislative, intelligence and military.
Eventually the state finds it is just a wholly owned subsidiary of corporations. I suppose they must even own the supreme court. ("corporations are people too")
The corporations disconnect the state from the constitution.
The state (through childish people in power) becomes more tyranical, intrusive and oppressive.
What happens next is presently unknown.
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Re: Re: Non drug induced delusions might by symptoms of...something...call someone
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Re: Re: Re: Non drug induced delusions might by symptoms of...something...call someone
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Non drug induced delusions might by symptoms of...something...call someone
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Murderous Goons
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That's comedy gold right there.
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Can someone please....
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Just wait...
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Re: Just wait...
At least, that's what the FBI has been doing for the past 20+ years.
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Re: Re: Just wait...
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I just saw that movie recently
But the craziest part is half the country wants the government to be event bigger and more powerful than it already is.
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Re: I just saw that movie recently
The craziest part is:
* half the country wants the government to be even bigger and more powerful than it already is
* and the other half wants the corporations to be even bigger and more powerful than the government
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Re: Re: I just saw that movie recently
This reminds me of Animal Farm.
Gub-mint good, big biz better.
Erm, no. Stop blathering on about government and work harder at getting people to engage with the democratic process and make the government behave. That there are too few of us who are willing to put the effort in is the problem.
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Re: Re: Re: I just saw that movie recently
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- Prefers a hierarchy, especially where they dominate? Check.
- Uses order to achieve all of the above? Check.
Definitely Lawful Evil.
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Matter of fact, pretty sure Adm. Rogers has unseated Asmodeus to run the Nine Hells. Check out WikiLeaks for their mass data collection plans against the Tanar'ri.
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They have the goods on everyone and it only takes one person who believes that it is for "the greater good" to blackmail a politician or 10.
Information is a great power and power tends to corrupt when it is unchecked. All we can really do is hope for it not to happen and even hope that it isn't already happening.
With all that they have done so far, it really isn't outside the realm af possibility anymore.
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Yeah, i know, right after we start planting rice on Neptune, we'll get to that.
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Actually, yes it is. NSA headquarters is located in Fort George G. Meade, a US Army installation.
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Actually, yes it is. NSA headquarters is located in Fort George G. Meade, a US Army installation.
NSA head Michael Rogers is an Admiral.
I guess his flagship is so secret that it is invisible.
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If the NSA doesn't know that they can't trust Hollywood...
I mean why would someone who should know better, like the NSA, trust a dirtbag Hollywood producer or anyone in the Entertainment industry for that maater?
Kind of scary.
What they should have done instead is hack some b-level executives car, like they did with Michael Hastings. That would have sent a message.
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TSA, Meet NSA
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Even as they murder, torture, and deny basic human rights to their victims.
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Be Proud, 5%
The LAPD disavowed the film "Colors" at the last moment to INCREASE the distribution of it's 'telegraphed*' message. The Deal: we give you $tons of free production value, you sell our budgets to the taxpayers.
The negative message is the point of most of Hollywood's crap; how many of us started dressing like Darth rather than wearing a white pullover in 1978? (colorful disco was dying)
How many Americun children watch 50 hours a week of gun entertainment, just to get blown away because they twisted their bread to look like a pistol?
Institutionalized futility and hopelessness plus a violent solution to every human circumstance was the PRODUCT of Euripides' 'theater' and Homer's epics. See Simone Weil's 'The Iliad or Poem of Force'
Five percent of us saw Oswald was the patsy & saw representative democracy get replaced with a glorious State Funeral. After a thousand rejected JFK scripts (i saw many) Oliver Stone was ALLOWED to include the other 90% of Americans AT THE MOMENT Bush invaded Iraq and Rodney King got beat up 1,500 times. Moving the center of the road IS the job of Hollywood, that's why many people act like they got their moral compass from spending to much time inside a public restroom.
*'Telegraphing' is film speak for a subliminally delivered image.
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Re: Yes, you can fly an aircraft over the NSA headquarters
Though I would have to disagree with the general tone of the article. It isn't surveillance that is the problem. It is the normalization of moral hazard associated with surveillance.
IOW, I don't care what they look at, provided they can't share it with my competitors, or use it legally in court. (To include sharing it with domestic agencies for the purposes of parallel construction)
A fundamental principle of intelligence is that you diversify your sources so you can check them against each other. The creation of the DHSA essentially subverted that after 9/11. And that's what has resulted in the intelligence sector becoming more of a corporate conglomerate instead of a bag of independent state intelligence services.
Either Bush was a fascist and knew what he was doing, or he was professionally illiterate and didn't know, or he was just a narcissist burnout who didn't think that far ahead.
Because this kind of short sighted social engineering is exactly what allowed for the creation of a fascist Germany in the 30's, AND resulted in an ineffectual war time intelligence service for them, ultimately accelerating their demise.
There is a dichotomy between doing what is good for the agency, and doing what is good for the country. And that is yet another reason why aggregating intelligence below the executive branch is a BAD idea. Most coupe de' tetes come out of the intelligence services in their OWN COUNTRY.
Congress and the NSA are simply reenacting the fable of the frog and the scorpion. Perhaps that is what Bush intended all along?
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Military
> on inside can be determined from 500 feet above the building.
The NSA is not a military base all its own, but it does reside on a military base-- NSA HQ sits on a portion of Fort Meade, which is an Army base.
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nsa
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Hello
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