The press office at the Federal Bureau of Investigations isn’t as serious as you might think. 11 employees in FBI’s public affairs unit are on a mission to coordinate with Hollywood filmmakers to ensure accurate portrayal of their agency’s activities.
Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.) is appalled. He released a report “Justice Denied: Waste & Management at the Department of Justice” detailing the millions of dollars mismanaged at DOJ, including the valuable staff resources being made available to the entertainment industry at the taxpayers’ expense.
The unit, housed in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, exists to “create an accurate portrayal of the Bureau.” It was recently directly involved with “The Kingdom” featuring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner and a film depicting the assassination of U.S president called “Shooter” starring Mark Wahlberg and Dannie Glover.
“Despite the multimillion dollar budgets of most Hollywood films, the FBI is not compensated by the industry for using taxpayer-funded staff resources to assist with these movies and TV shows,” the report noted.
The Kingdom’s production budget was $72.5 million and grossed more than $121 million.
FBI officials have also been involved in the television programs “Without a Trace,” “CSI,” “Numb3rs” and “The Closer.”
“Clearly these types of movies and shows, which focus on plots to kill the president and promote their shows by glorifying violence, including numerous violent crime scenes, and refer flippantly to criminal penalties for those who do break the law, do little to promote the mission of justice, law enforcement or combating crime,” Coburn’s report complained. “Yet the FBI staff continue to assist producers with such efforts.”