I always wondered if those countless military/intelligence shows like 24, Jack Ryan etc were sponsored as propaganda.

They always show off the US intelligence services as the good guys, in unrealistically cool nightclub style offices. But the story is always the same 'anything goes to defeat the bad guys'. Which is exactly the attitude of those services as exposed by Snowden.

Sometimes I wonder if they're trying to bend our mindset to make us believe these things are necessary. They make for mildly interesting entertainment but I always wondered if there's more behind it like the article says.