EDITORIAL SHAMEFUL SELF-PROMOTION HOMELAND SECURITY AGENCY HAS BETTER THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT THAN ITS LOOKS.

IN this dangerous world of terrorist threats at every turn, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has more important things to worry about than how Hollywood depicts it.

The department's plan to hire a Hollywood spin doctor to make the agency look good on film and television is just plain stupid. Is fighting the war on terror nothing but an exercise in public-relations puffery or is it about detecting and dismantling deadly terrorist plots to kill and maim people within the country's borders?

This plan is the latest in a disturbing trend of government spending public money to promote itself. We've come to expect that sort of self-promotion from local agencies and officials who need to hide their failure to do a good job for the public, but it doesn't make it any easier to accept.

It's commendable that both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Washington are questioning the expense, because there are far more appropriate ways to spend taxpayer money.

That the security agency considers an entertainment image consultant an important expense of public funds at all makes it seem that it must have more than an image problem. If that's true, then Congress needs to start taking a hard look at whether the agency is doing the job, or needs new leaders who are mission-oriented, not image-conscious.