GEORGE W. BUSH: ...deliberate and deadly attacks were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war. This will require our country to unite in steadfast determination and resolve.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:One of the president's new campaign commercials? Wrong. This is the trailer for a new action series now being pitched by Steeple Productions called DHS: The Series. Characters include legendary special agent Jack Callahan played by Tim Cavanaugh, and intelligence analyst Andrea Bacall, played by Alison Heruth-Waterbury who range near and far in pursuit of evil-doers who hate our freedom. DHS stands for the Department of Homeland Security, which celebrated its first birthday Monday, and so far its record is mixed. Watchdogs say DHS is woefully underfunded; its intelligence unit under-staffed, its monitoring capabilities hobbled. But its action figure version on the small screen is breathtaking.

ANDREA BACALL: [SHOUTING] We gotta get these people out of here!

JACK CALLAHAN: Hey, Jordie, do me a favor. [...?...]!

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Steeple representatives told E-Online that, quote, "no other television series has ever had such access and clearance at the highest levels of real life counterterrorism agencies" including the White House, the FBI, the EPA and of course the DHS itself. Joseph Medawar is the show's executive producer, Alison Heruth-Waterbury is another producer and the show's co-star. Welcome to the show.

JOSEPH MEDAWAR: Thank you. Thank you for inviting us.

ALISON HERUTH-WATERBURY: Thank you.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: The characters are fictional, and the story lines are also fictional. These things have not really happened or at least not yet.

JOSEPH MEDAWAR: Right. These things that could happen and some international scenarios have happened.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Do you use any actual footage or any real life characters?

JOSEPH MEDAWAR: We are trying to use as many actual footage as possible.

ALISON HERUTH-WATERBURY: The government has opened up multiple sites for us to actually film on as they're going through their training sessions, and what they do is they put me or Tim Cavanaugh in the midst of everything that's going on and they allow us to film, and the government support has just been phenomenal at that level. And our passion is to educate. We're trying to bring as much truth to the screen by doing thorough research and using Gray Davis and Ranaan Gissin, Ariel Sharon's spokesperson. These are people who want to come and play themselves because they also have an interest in portraying what Homeland Security does and how the different governments from different countries interact with one another.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Now you'll remember that the creation of the Homeland Security Department was not without its share of debate, and one year later there continues to be real questions raised about its overall effectiveness. Are you at all concerned that the unvarnished heroes of the plotlines in your shows will eclipse the very legitimate real life concerns about the DHS?

ALISON HERUTH-WATERBURY: You know what, DHS is, you know, from our point of view, is very strong for us in the U.S. We need it. Is it perfected to where we want it to be? I think there's always room for improvement in every area. But it's not a show about promoting the government. It's about educating--

BROOKE GLADSTONE: But don't you think the education value is somewhat impaired if you don't show any of the warts?

ALISON HERUTH-WATERBURY:Yes, of course those need to be displayed and shown, so you can learn from 'em. I cannot judge, and I wouldn't even want to say publicly where I feel their weak areas are, because there's very few people that are there, I believe, for the wrong reason. Now whether they are right or wrong, again, is a perception. But they have to believe in what they're doing.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:You know, it's not inconsistent to recognize the heroism of participants in an agency and yet raise questions about the efficiency of an agency. The trailer that you posted on your website, if it's any indication of the overall flavor of your series -- we see an almost invariably effective endeavor, and the power of fiction might lead viewers to think that that is the way the Homeland Security Department operates when in fact there are some very real problems that if the public were aware of they might help to address.

ALISON HERUTH-WATERBURY: We have every intention of bringing those things to the air. You've merely seen a two to three minute trailer, and you don't have our story line and, you know, that is changing every day.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: To what extent is the White House and the Department of Homeland Security involved in the program?

JOSEPH MEDAWAR:We try to give on a every two week basis a complete package of what we're filming and what the story's about to the proper authorities that we are working with here in California at the governor's office, and they pass it on. And it continues to the right channels, and the person with us is Congressman Rohrbacher from our district.

ALISON HERUTH-WATERBURY: Rohrbacher is the one who has had contact with, a complete conversation with the president, and we know that he knows about it; we, we told him ourselves personally.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: The president.

ALISON HERUTH-WATERBURY: Yeah, we met with him for a photo op- and we briefly ran it by him with the little time that we had.

JOSEPH MEDAWAR:Before we saw the president, we had a very nice conversation with Karl Rove on where we are and how far we're going with it. When Mr. Tom Ridge came to Los Angeles to inspire the entertainment division of doing shows about the department, the head of our production had met with him; there was tremendous amount of enthusiasm and excitement, and I, I -- if I may add something, it was very funny. Our head of production turned to Mr. Ridge and said "Who would you like to see play your part? And Mr. Ridge kind of giggled, and he says 'Hold off two years. Maybe I'll come back and play it myself.'"

BROOKE GLADSTONE:So Tom Ridge himself went to Los Angeles to try and get the entertainment industry interested in producing programs that would bring the message of homeland security and the war on terror to the people.

JOSEPH MEDAWAR: Well, absolutely. They're assembling an office in Los Angeles for producers, writers, directors to be able to contact for authenticity and information -- to help filmmakers deliver a right message.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: But are we all absolutely in agreement on what the right message is?

ALISON HERUTH-WATERBURY:Absolutely not. And we would be fools to say that we did. We do know that we need to fight terrorism on a international level and it shouldn't be tolerated at any level. That's the only one thing that I feel that-- the majority of the people in this world do agree on.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: All right. Alison Heruth-Waterbury is star and co-producer of DHS: The Series. Alison thank you very much.

ALISON HERUTH-WATERBURY: Thank you. Thank you so much for your time.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And Joseph Medawar is the show's executive producer. Thank you, too.

JOSEPH MEDAWAR: Thank you. [CLIP/SONG SECRET AGENT MAN PLAYS]

BOB GARFIELD: Coming up, when to use the word genocide, sourcing at the New York Times and

HOWARD STERN: clown or martyr?

BROOKE GLADSTONE: This is On the Media, from NPR.