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Free Speech Canto XXII

Michael Ceraolo

Re the Pentagon Papers,
Not the ones leaked by Ellsberg about the Vietnam War,
but papers before and after that war,
even
in some cases before there was a Pentagon
And these papers were about that other war,
the one to win the hearts and minds of the American people
and, by extension, the world
The papers
that established the policies by which
they would determine which movies to offer support to

“No matter what we want from Hollywood,
we get it---
and quick
We do not even have to ask”

But when moviemakers’ self-censorship didn’t go far enough,
the Pentagon was ready with conditions for its support

“Military aspects are feasible authentic depictions”
(“Any film that portrays the military as negative
is not realistic to us”)

“Informs the public about the military”
(“officially supporting this production
for the positive image visibility it will provide”)
(“has worked closely with the producers and screenwriters
in developing a mutually acceptable script”)

“Helps military recruiting and retention”
(“military depictions have become
more of a ‘commercial’ for us”)

“The production must be authentic in its portrayal
of persons,
places,
actual military operations
or historical events”
(except,
of course,
where any or all of those would reflect negatively
on any aspect of the military)

And so the producers

(definition of producer

-someone superbly skilled
at getting other people
to pay for everything)

would usually
cravenly cave in to any and all demands,
almost as many stories as there have been movies

“They make prostitutes of us all
because they want us to sell out
to their point of view”
and
the movies that might have been made
have been relegated to an uncensored alternate world,
where,
“when the government is giving financial benefits,
it can’t decide who to give to,
or not give to,
based
on the viewpoint expressed”

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