It’s been exactly eighteen months since the election of Donald Trump, and it seems like not a day has gone by without mention of Russian hacking or someone leaking classified information. The latest CBS’s NCIS: New Orleans perfectly captures both issues with a little bit of obnoxious journalism to boot. If that’s not the best way to capture the media's coverage of the Trump era, I don’t know what is.
The May 8 episode “The Assassination of Dwayne Pride” follows a conspiracy set to take down the head of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service: New Orleans division, Dwayne Pride (Scott Bakula). This mess begins from an inflammatory article written by an insufferable journalist named Oliver Crane (Mark Gessner) documenting Pride “disregarding the law” over the years. Although the piece is mostly out of context and exaggerated, Crane also provides leaked classified information to add legitimacy to his clickbait.
From his first introduction to NCIS agents LaSalle (Lucas Black) and Gregorio (Vanessa Ferlito), he’s about as pleasant as any other mainstream journalist nowadays.
LaSalle: Oliver Crane. Special Agents Gregorio and Lasalle...
Crane: Yeah, I know who you are, you're Dwayne Pride's goon squad.
Gregorio: Um... Somewhere private we can go?
Crane: Anything you have to say to me can be said in front of the breakers.
LaSalle: "Breakers."
Crane: Yeah, the people in this room who are dedicated to exposing the truth, no matter what the cost. They're gonna bear witness to whatever's about to happen here.
Gregorio: Whoa. We just want to talk.
Crane: Like you talked to Carsen Donner? I've read your case files, so I know your methods.
Gregorio: The case files are why we're here. We need to know how you got them.
Crane: Not gonna reveal my source, but I didn't intimidate, bully or beat up anybody to get the information, so, you know, stark contrast to your boss.
LaSalle: Hey, now, hold on a second.
Gregorio: Mr. Crane, you published classified information. That's against the law.
Crane: Well, as a journalist...
LaSalle: Is that what you call yourself?
Crane: As a journalist, the story serves the public interest. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure, Article 971. I'm within my rights to publish.
LaSalle: Yeah, the files were obtained illegally.
Crane: Well, now, that would be your opinion, Agent Lasalle.
Considering the Justice Department is now knee-deep in at least 27 investigations regarding leaked information, this scene feels all too accurate regarding reporting over the past two years. Just like in real-life, the NCIS team quickly deduces a coordinated effort behind the leak to take down Pride in the eyes of the public.
But in this case, someone is leaking information and conjuring up fake bots to sway civilians into forcing him out of a job. The show makes the obvious comparison.
Gregorio: Don't mean to interrupt. Patton and I got something. Protest outside, all those people showing up so fast, organized out of nowhere. It didn't make sense.
Pride: I told you not to worry about the protest.
Patton: But it connects. The crowd wasn't no accident. They were directed here.
Gregorio: Social media went crazy when Crane's exposé was uploaded. Accounts from all over the city were demanding retribution.
Pride: People are upset.
Patton: Yeah, but these posts weren't made by people. They were made by bots. Programmed algorithms. Hundreds of them, all stirring up trouble about you, Pride.
Gregorio: Look. "Nolabrah682, basincrewe, hurricanehenry91." These are fake accounts that didn't exist two days ago.
Rita: It's right out of the Russian playbook, 2016.
Pride: But I'm not running for office. I'm just an NCIS agent. Why use all this firepower?
Patton: You pissed somebody off.
Pride: Yeah. Got that.
The only difference is the show remembered to provide evidence for that claim rather than skip straight to the inevitable investigation. Unfortunately, in the real world, not everything works like it does on television. Sometimes, conspiracies don’t always come true, and leaking classified information hardly qualifies as journalism. Sadly, liberals don’t always remember that.
