End Pentagon Influence on American Culture and Media

Americans are inundated with Pentagon-influenced cultural products that promote militarism, shaping public perception of war and military intervention in ways that serve defense industry interests rather than informed democratic debate. I urge you to support legislation that would require transparency in military involvement in entertainment and media production, and to oppose federal funding that enables this propaganda apparatus. The Pentagon's cultural influence operates through multiple channels. The Department of Defense provides equipment, locations, and consultation to film and television productions in exchange for script approval, effectively turning entertainment into recruitment and public relations tools. This arrangement gives the military veto power over how it is portrayed in popular culture, suppressing critical perspectives and sanitizing the realities of war. Research from the Costs of War project reveals the human consequences obscured by this militaristic messaging. During the Afghanistan war from 2001 to 2021, 24 percent of U.S. women service members and 1.9 percent of men experienced sexual assault. The U.S. Defense Department ranks among the world's top greenhouse gas emitters. These facts rarely appear in Pentagon-approved entertainment that glamorizes military service. The military-industrial complex has become enmeshed with Silicon Valley, with growing Pentagon spending flowing to large tech firms. This creates additional channels for militaristic messaging through digital platforms and gaming, reaching younger audiences with sophisticated recruitment and normalization campaigns. I ask you to introduce or co-sponsor legislation requiring full disclosure of Pentagon involvement in media productions, prohibiting military script approval authority, and ending taxpayer subsidies for entertainment that serves as military marketing. The American public deserves cultural products that reflect the full reality of war, including its costs to service members, civilians, and the environment, not propaganda designed to maintain support for endless military operations.