Even in 1983, the media was just an unwitting wing of Government Agencies
Edward Snowden went looking for videos of former CIA employees that the CIA “sued into silence“. He foundwhat the CIA wanted to hide. Here, CIA officer Frank Snepp describing just how easy it was to get journalists to write exactly the stories they hoped they would write.
All those problems we see in the media today were already well developed 40 years ago. Real journalism is really rare.
On a website for people with a four-second attention span, that’s a lot of folks who stopped to watch a four-minute video from forty year years ago. Real numbers. https://t.co/shyAKE8SJt
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 9, 2022
@Snowdon says:
The entire thing is much longer, but *entirely* worth the watch. The government sued Snepp in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled intelligence workers had to submit any statement for censorship, even those unrelated to secrets.
Once an agency becomes good at lying “for the sake of the nation” or to “win the war” it’s only a hop, skip and a jump to lying to the nation to save the nation from itself.
Full 16 minute version below: Frank Snepp discusses his dilemma with the morality of what he did — “propagandizing the American public” — from 8 mins.
Snepp wrote a book, which is when the CIA sued him. In the court case The Supreme Court set an extraordinary precedent curtailing the free speech of public servants — deciding that every public worker in any public office has an obligation to report to the government what they are planning to write and must get approval before publishing it, even if they are not revealing secrets. It’s a life long gag order, even if they signed no secrecy order.
Worldwide, the practice of genuine journalism stopped in the early 1970’s.
Thereafter, journalists were replaced with professional propagandists who wrote stories for newspapers and electronic media.
It also corresponded nicely with the art of journalism transitioning from being a profession that was learned “on the job” with what was to falsely be called “journalism” that was taught in “universties”. That corresponded nicely with the Left taking over the universities as part of Rudi Dutschke’s long term plan conceived in 1967 of “the long march through the institutions”.
No doubt the CIA aided and abetted all of the above.
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The Long March has been a success way beyond the wildest dreams of Rudi. From what I recall he spoke of setting up parallel institutions as the original concept. But they went right through the existing ones so well that new ones weren’t required. Even the corporations. He would never have envisaged that I’m sure.
I rate the success of Rudi’s Long March as the reason we face such impossible odds against their terribly weak and mostly imaginary arguments. That we are in a climate crisis is completely imaginary yet has people convinced. It is just the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. That has to be the result of something manipulative, and it’s Rudi’s march.
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Rudi’s Long March was very successful.
So was Mao’s.
So was Ho Chi Minh’s “not so long march” to Saigon.
The communists have been at it for a long time. They know how our free Western democracies work. They know how our Rule of Law works. They know how our “free press” works.
So all the anti-American experts here know how to defeat the communists?
Please let us hear your wisdom.
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Yes, but! Don’t give up yet.
The “Fellow Travellers” of Communism won government in the recent federal election in Australia.
Faced with the extraordinary problems which are the subject of much discussion on this blog they did not all react true to form. We actually saw some sound thinking on some issues.
And the unsound thinking that has been on show is so unsound that it should soon hit a brick wall of reality.
Today we see headlines that Eraring may now not be shut down on its current schedule. That is a best possible indication that sanity may yet prevail.
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…but what if this YouTube clip is just another example of CIA disinformation?.. 🙂
Trust is fragile.
Truth is precious.
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truth may be fragile when despots are in control.
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You could see it at work with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Any half decent reporter would have known that it had been brewing for years but still bought the tripe that it was about Russia wanting to conquer Eastern Europe again.
I’m not condoning the invasion, it s just that it was obvious that it was in response to 8 years of fighting over Russian controlled areas.
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exactly R.B.
l urge people to watch the documentary series “roses have thorns” to see the history of what has been happening since 2013 and why Ukraine is having the proxy war it is
when you are called and treated as a terrorist, a blight that must be exterminated in your own country because of your political views there is something very wrong especially when the world organisations who are supposed to be there to stop this kind of catastrophe are against you bur are following the narrative
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Yes, the CIA installation of Zelansky, and the child trafficking and all those other issues which had been highlighted for years. See below as an example.
And all those Nazi connections…
But hey, nothing to see here. Ukraine is now a Leftist cause celebre.
(see link to trailer for Oliver Stones “Ukraine on Fire” 2016 documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBOJtMbGq6g)
Too many journos pushing a narrative with zero understanding of history in this area of the world. Most would be completely ignorant of Stepan Bandera and his Nazi links, yet he is still admired and followed by many there today…
We should not be there with military aid…
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While all the while at the most fundamental level Russia’s population was declining.
Not for want of resources.
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Back then they were single.
Now it’s a family of five.
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Five Eyes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes?wprov=sfla1
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5-Eyes, 9-Eyes, and 14-Eyes agreement explained
https://cybernews.com/resources/5-eyes-9-eyes-14-eyes-countries/
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Five eyes?, are they a bit one eyed.
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And the alternative is what exactly, David?
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Worldwide, the last great real journalism was the investigation and exposé (1972-74) of the Watergate scandal by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
Today, important scandals such as the Hunter Biden laptop affair are actually censored by “journalists” even though the knowledge of the truth of it would have been enough to swing the last US Presidential election (even with extensive fraud in favour of Biden).
https://thefederalist.com/2020/11/24/poll-one-in-six-biden-voters-would-have-changed-their-vote-if-they-had-known-about-scandals-suppressed-by-media/
It was also election interference.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/mar/24/medias-suppression-of-hunter-laptop-was-election-i/
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Dont forget the Boston Globes “Spotllight” investigation and ultimate reveal of the Catholic church and child abuse history , in 2002.
That cut pretty deep into the “Establishment” and resisted their interference.
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That’s something that could have been exposed long before it was. Makes me wonder what important story they needed a distraction from at that time.
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Ask yourself this question, David: if Richard Nixon was a Democrat President who was alleged to have broken in to the Republican National Committee, would Woodward and Bernstein have pursued the “scandal” with the same vigour?
Given Woodward’s political inclinations since, I have serious doubts.
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Richard Nixon did not break into a Democrat office.
Your conflation is the problem- yet you do it barefaced?
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That’s a nitpick, Sam. You know the point of his post is that if the roles were reversed, and it had been Democrat burglars, the story would have been buried.
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Sure it’s a nitpick. It’s the little pricks that conflate half-truths that seek to control the narrative. They must always and everywhere be corrected.
Let me repeat it: Richard Nixon did not break into a Democrat office.
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Mr. M: As I’ve said elsewhere, the election the FBI really interfered in was the 2020 Dem. primary. They had the laptop no later than Dec. ’19, and whether by leak or by indicting Hunter, his dad would have been toast. I wonder why Liz Warren doesn’t complain.
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Liz Warren doesn’t complain because she’s complicit.
Biden was their best bet for dealing with the communists. China. Russia. Cuba. Venezuala.
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Woodward’s and Bernstein’s antics were a side show and aggrandized themselves with a book and movie. Deepthroat Felts offered little about the Watergate break-in. Even WaPo Exec editor Ben Bradley acknowledged they had little to do with the actual investigation and some of their reporting was unbelievable. Nixon was brought down by dis-illusioned GOP members in Congress, John Dean and Judge Sirica.
And Dean was involved in planning the break-in
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Sorry, David, but Woodward and Bernstein were the tip of the Democrat spear to take Nixon down.
https://spectator.org/fake-watergate-heroes-bob-woodward-and-carl-bernstein/
And they are still up to their old tricks.
https://news.yahoo.com/woodward-bernstein-trumps-efforts-overturn-140612712.html
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“Journalism” as it is falsely called today is equally as shameful a profession as being a politician, with a very few notable exceptions for both.
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EVERY federal Liberal, Labor and National Party politician who served between 2015 and 2021, plus Craig Kelly of the UAP and Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts of PHON, have been complicit in the treasonous sellout of the Australian population.
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@Memoryvault:
I’m interested to know how you connect Pauline Hanson & Malcolm Roberts to the betrayal of the Australian people.
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Why restrict crimes to that date range.
Crimes and “inappropriate conduct” go beyond the WEF you know.
Pollies didn’t suddenly all become corrupt starting in 2015. 😉
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And you solution is what exactly, Memoryvault?
Communists? Greens? Anarchy?
Pray tell.
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Haven’t heard from you in years
All good?
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This is not what’s happening with the legacy media today. The govt has powerful tools to manipulate the media and it always has. As the CIA agent alluded to, a skeptical journalist can verify info with other sources, but if they’re all lying, it’s almost impossible to get to the truth.
The legacy media today is not even remotely skeptical. It’s complicit with favoured institutions and will gladly lie on their behalf. They don’t even try to be skeptical. They truly are the propaganda wing for their favoured institutions. That wasn’t he case in the 70s.
The structure of the legacy media today does not remotely resemble what it was in the 70s. With the rise and dominance of social media, and the collapse of advertising revenue in the legacy media, there is no incentive to be unbiased or skeptical.
It’s up to us as news consumers to seek out trusted sources and ignore the noise and propaganda coming from the legacy media.
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Its all true, the rise of the inter webs saw the demise of the MSM as the rivers of gold dried up.
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The rivers of gold took a new course maybe even a new floodplain
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I think many of our lefties are happy to see Russia, China, Iran etc get a free kick forever and commentators/writers yapping their rulers propaganda, but we should never accept that in our so called free countries.
But alas the USA has fallen into the same pattern and the DEMs are the lucky recipients of this lefty muzzling of their MSM and Elon Musk will have his work cut out even trying to turn Twitter around.
For a start he has to ensure he still retains enough advertising revenue to allow him to stay in the race and this will be his first big challenge.
BUT in a time of genuine conflict like a global war all bets are off and whatever it takes is always acceptable to fool the other side.
Anyone who doesn’t understand this is either treasonous or a stupid fool.
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The media, especially ‘Our ABC’ continues to be an unwitting (mostly) dupe of Government Agencies. The leaking of supposedly Government secret policy is now an art form! Gullible/lazy journalists are still targeted and primed with data that is difficult to check but, on deadlines and fractious editors who love the “scoop”, they write it up and publish it. Joe Public soaks it up and the result gets magnified exponentially.
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With very few other exceptions, it’s volunteer citizen journalists like Jo who can be relied upon for truth and independent traditional journalism.
That’s a problem for the Elites.
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At some point, at least in Australia, there was a transition in the way Government Ministers issued press releases.
They came to be written specifically in journalstic “style” for the benefit of lazy, incompetent “journalists” who could simply quote them verbatim.
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Politics these days is all about “managing the Media” in order to ensure the electorate get the version of the facts that suits the “Parties” needs.
Sucsessful politicians are those that are best skilled in media management and public perception.
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I note the inclusion of a closing paragraph in many “Official” press releases of a ‘Statement attributable to the Minister” The news item, pre written in approved vernacular ,and requiring no effort on the part of the “journalists”.
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When those media used to be interested in a very valuable “scoop” managing them may have even been possible.
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Corroboration of this story from a journalists perspective – https://www.amazon.com.au/Presstitutes-Embedded-Pay-CIA-Ulfkotte/dp/1615770178. This book was the first of a 3 part series but the author died of a heart attack at 56 before subsequent books could be published – long before covid vaccines were a thing…. Funny that….
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Checking out the book on Amazon led me to YouTube and this interview. Very interesting. And at this point he’d already had 3 heart attacks and numerous CIA type searches of his home.
https://youtu.be/O3AW2YFbqJE
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We’ve just come through 2 and a bit years of a major psychops situation with COVID. That was performed by a combination of parties, governmental and private with probably the pharma companies as one of the main players. Employing the same tactics as CIA, MI6 or any other major intelligence organisation. Right in front of our noses and most of the media happy to go along with it. The epitome of which was when Pfizer CEO (Bourlas) was asked his medical opinion of the efficacy of vaccines during an interview. REALLY??
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To make things even worse, the scientific illiteracy of a typical journalist is simply staggering, as well as in all other technical matters. And everything else, actually.
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Russell Brand pretty much laying the deep state agenda on the line. From 6.38 Obama’s magnificent deflection on starting the Ukraine war!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPc9pMtrP08
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Corruption is as old as humanity.
The FBI planted CP on Trump supporters pc’s to ruin their credibility.
The CBI and CIA are just politicised criminal entities, just like the MSM, and have been for decades.
The House Republicans 1000 page report can be viewed/downloaded here:
https://scribfree.com/document/605083264/House-Republicans-Release-FBI-Report
The United States of secrets is a good documentary too.
https://youtu.be/kaUemcqIQ-k
Pt 1.
Now that the red wave has turned into a blue one, the stage is set for 2023.
Hope for the best but expect the worst…
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During covid I had contact with several journalists. Only Adam Creighton of the Australian engaged and he was quite receptive to all the papers and info I sent in the early phases of the fake pandemic. Whilst he is not perfect he did try to “follow the science”.
Chris Kenny is often quoted as a conservative but he never bothered to ever get back to me. He is just controlled opposition.
Another journalist at the Gold Coast Bulletin, when I showed her all the evidence that masks were useless was genuinely impressed, and had asked me to write an article for the paper. She obviously had her editor “correct” her as very suddenly she would not return emails or phone calls.
Others never engaged either, despite sending them govt data showing the complete stupidity of much that was done.
Journalism has degenerated into a popularity contest where the editors and journos care nothing for the truth at all. They just want to be seen to support the narrative and be politically correct, even if in their heart of hearts they know what they are saying is totally false.
I remain positive though as many alternative media outlets are doing a great job and have been providing objective reporting. You just have to find them – this website is an excellent example.
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Journalists and their editors are just like our scientist and engineers, just standing by watching the BS float by and keeping stum, hoping to keep their jobs and reputation, what a sewer we are living in.
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‘Dis’ Information should be read as ‘This Information’. And as for Denial, well, ‘De’ Nile is a big river that flows through Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea…………………..
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The Supreme Court set an extraordinary precedent curtailing the free speech of public servants — deciding that every public worker in any public office has an obligation to report to the government what they are planning to write and must get approval before publishing it, even if they are not revealing secrets. It’s a life long gag order, even if they signed no secrecy order.
That cannot be legal.
And how about the ‘Pollies’ here and their Memoirs? Or is that deemed to be Fiction so it doesn’t count? Turnbull, Gillard, Rudd, etc, etc, etc………………
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I would like to think some journalists are lurking here, reading it, and embarrassed.
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Their name would be: Gee Aye
and NO…
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no.
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I have never seen the likes of ABC pseudo-journalists, or GA.. be embarrassed by their disinformation.
They revel in it !!
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Even in 1963, the media was just an unwitting wing of Government Agencies.
In the many decades since the assassination of JFK the steady erosion of the despicable Warren Commission conclusions has been welcome. But the FBI/Secret Service/CIA/Dallas cops roles in that have their hordes of media and www protectors.
Now we have the multi-thousands of JFK/assassination documents released in 2017-2018 it is easier for interested people to get nearer the truth and understand the lies we have been told for decades.
I have ref to the Warren Commission as the greatest witness and evidence tampering / witness harming / process in US history.
Warren told us that JFK was killed by lone nut Lee Harvey Oswald –
Then lone nut LHO shot Dallas cop Tippitt –
Then lone nut Jack Ruby shot & killed LHO.
Amen.
Now we know that if LHO had ever gone to trial where witnesses might not have their lives threatened –
it is doubtful LHO could even be placed at that 6th floor window of the Tx Book Depositary,
the rifle found after the assassination was described as a German Mauser by several Dallas cops –
the many witnesses who said shots came from the “Grassy Knoll” area,
the many witnesses who saw gun-smoke near the fence – “Grassy Knoll” area,
the witnesses who saw people running away from the “Grassy Knoll” area,
they could all be heard without being threatened and harassed –
the witnesses who said Tippitts killer was “short and heavily built”
they could be heard without being threatened –
V unlikely LHO would have been convicted of much.
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LBJ was the most likely benefactor in JFK failure-to-thrive. LBJ was also a Democrat
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We figured this out in the 1960s, when we were protesting against Australia’s involvement in Vietnam. We knew that the only part of a newspaper you can trust is the comic strips. And some of those are a bit dodgy.
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I have just learnt this week that at the time of the JFK assassination the Dallas Mayor Cabell was the brother of the General Cabell one of the CIA head honchos sacked by JFK.
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What was Operation Mockingbird?
It was an alleged large-scale project undertaken by the CIA beginning in the 1950s in which they recruited American journalists into a propaganda network. The recruited journalists were put on payroll by the CIA and instructed to write fake stories that promoted the views of the intelligence agency. Student cultural organizations and magazines were allegedly funded as fronts for this operation.
Allegedly. 🙂
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The name may be in dispute but the CIA’s part in MSM manipulation isn’t.
I have a video (somewhere deep in the ultra massive JC2 archives) of Nixon being interviewed and admitting it.
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The following account of a CIA scam will be of interest to many readers of this blog topic…
In 1974, a large and very unusual ship arrived in the middle of the Pacific. It was fitted with innovative drilling and sampling equipment and was designed to establish a new frontier for mining manganese nodules in the deep Pacific Ocean. But appearances were deceptive and the vessel was instead an astonishing cold war trick which left a legacy of considerable consequences.
It appears that the real target for the mining venture was a lost Soviet submarine carrying ballistic nuclear missiles. It disappeared in 1968, presumably sunk in waters NW of Hawaii. An extensive and secretive search by the Soviets failed to find the 2,000 tonne vessel but with underwater listening technology the Americans were able to detect an explosion and pinpoint the location of the wreck in water depths of about 5km.
The submarine, weapons and Soviet secrets were beyond the reach of recovery using the technology of the time. Salvage of the vessel and its contents would give the US a huge advantage in a period when a cold war and an arms race dominated international politics.
The CIA devised a cunning plan to retrieve the submarine without alerting the Soviets. The scheme involved a smokescreen by pretending to explore and mine deep seafloor manganese nodules.
Under the cover of a manganese mining venture the CIA recruited Howard Hughes, a wealthy eccentric billionaire with a panache for crazy schemes. Using Hughes as a front, a massive recovery ship the Glomar Explorer, was designed and built. The ship was equipped with seabed mining equipment but it was also secretly designed and fitted with apparatus to recover the sunken submarine.
The ship was built with massive doors that could swing apart to create an underwater entry of sufficient size to hide the Soviet vessel. A disguised “capture vehicle” with giant claws was engineered to grab the wreck and lift it to the entry.
Public relations were important and to convince the Soviets this was a genuine mining venture the CIA sent company directors and scientists to attend numerous oceanographic conferences to describe and legitimise the cover plans. Some US universities commenced courses on sea floor mining and an explosion of small mining and mineral exploration companies climbed on the bandwagon with a view to capitalise on the new technology, availability of funding and positive public sentiment.
Despite the widespread promotion the Soviets were suspicious. Their spy ships shadowed the Glomar Explorer when it approached the area of the wreck. Fortunately the equipment was able to take seafloor sediment samples and the crew continued the deception by discussing manganese nodules when they knew that they were in earshot of sophisticated Soviet listening devices.
The salvage did not go to plan. Pipes and pumps regularly broke and strong swells caused the capture equipment to move. Over a number of weeks underwater cameras surveyed the sea floor and located the submarine. The recovery jaws managed to attach to the wreck but were unable to lift it all the way up to the ship. Part way up the claws failed and the submarine fell back to the sea floor. Although bodies of six drowned submariners were recovered the missiles, valuable code books and military secrets were not located.
The six year project cost about US$500 million, which when adjusted for inflation amounts to over US$3.5 billion in 2022 dollars. The CIA claimed that the venture was among the greatest intelligence coups of the cold war but many questioned the value of the mission considering its failure to recover any Soviet military secrets.
The scam was leaked almost a year after the recovery attempt and the deep sea mining project was exposed as a fake. The news shocked the mining industry and stalled UN negotiations to determine rights to mine ocean mineral wealth. Many small mining companies that had invested heavily on promoting similar ventures disappeared and stock market sentiment for deep sea mining collapsed.
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Rest assured that the government will restrict as much free speech as necessary in order to protect democracy…
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All without mentioning N un-named source from the US government, and confirmed by another source in Her Majexty’s embassy.
In the Ukraine, assume that everything you hear is propaganda. Noone is going to hand out information that might be helpful to an opponent. I enjoyed a web posting with military position maps, one from the Ukrainian government, one from the Russian MOD, one from an “independent” group. The borders of the Ukraine in all three was similar, but all the details were different. Generalities are useful, but always be careful of the story that was told. They are story tellers, that is their business. The “reporters” have to allow for that.
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The thing about wars is the propaganda comes from both sides, guaranteed. The MSM’s reporting is pure biased rubbish. The Ukraine situation is something I won’t comment on in detail as a very high percentage of comments and articles out there are heavily biased and/or nonsense.
One need only look at the major shift in public sentiment when the Russian sanctions affect them (eg EU/UK power issues), to see how much they believe or care in the mainstream narrative.
Jump on the bandwagon to virtue signal, jump off when the consequences affect YOU…
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Australian governments until the 1970s when Wran Labor NSW pioneered the new system all had “press secretaries” attached to the offices of prime minister/premier and cabinet ministers, each had one press secretary. Wran Labor removed press secretaries from ministerial positions and relocated them into media units and added many specialist spin doctors working together to minimise political damage for the government and create and spread propaganda, including issuing media releases in a format that journalists could copy and submit to editors.
And from that time onwards political spin knows no bounds, even misleading voters into believing that State responsibilities are Federal responsibilities, depending on the politics, the blame game goes both directions.
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Which probably at the time was a worldwide trend to go to media units, spin doctors etc. Now morphed into media liaisons departments with spin doctors, social media advisors and armies of social media trolls and even bots. Also recruiting lots of ex journalists into these departments to then further influence all their previous compatriots. We have Daniel Andrews in Victoria with his greatly expanded Premiers department using all those tools, but lately more accentuated towards social media influence. Over the last 2 years the “PRGuy” has become extremely influential in all the comings/goings of COVID and was largely responsible for the #istandwithdan mob. No one on social media ( mostly Facebook and Twitter) could post negative comments about the Dictator without being bombarded with very well crafted replies. Obviously all generated from probably that PRGuy and the Premiers department with an army of newly established accounts on Twitter for example. Most of which were probably union reps or semi-idle public servants ( Labor voters) all, you know, working from home. ( sarc ). What’s all that do? Well, for starters it influences most of the MSM in the state, who are scared sh.tl..s to say anything negative about the state government. Hell, there might be a well paid media advisor role in government about to come up. What you end up with is a cozy little symbiosis between state government and the media. Not sure it happens to such an extent in other states, maybe Qld? NSW seems to not have such a disease.
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Interestingly enough, these days it seems quite clear that it is the mangy tail of political churnalism that is wagging the rabid body of the “official” politics mongrel.
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Nice imagery, Bruce. 🍻
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Any analysis of human nature has to factor in the presence of a strong character against the presence of a weak one and what the differences between them are. Every individial must live with themselves every moment of every day and I do not believe it is a coincidence that there are so many unhappy, unhealthy, uncaring, and unconscientious people in the academic, commercial, political and media worlds of today. No one forces you to believe in lies, falsehoods, and propaganda but once you repeat these things and pass them on as truths to others then you are lost to everything that makes life worthwhile no matter how wealthy you may be because of your actions. There is always a judgement day.
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Assange should have made his way to Russia like Snowden did. You don’t crack this stuff without them killing you. He will die in prison.
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Problem is it is so obvious now – the disinformation – I don’t even pretend to believe a word of what you hear about Ukraine.
You can only look at the broader picture, and from that I conclude that the Russians are quite a hopeless armed force, judging from their lack of success which is obviously true. But that’s it.
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You have two choices as far as news media is concerned:
Choice 1: to be misinformed
Choice 2: to be uninformed
I prefer choice 2, so i don’t listen to or watch the “news” and when i do it is with the expectation to be misinformed, or to learn how they are misinforming others.
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OH REALLY?? What a waste of time
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Interesting video of how the CIA could plant disinformation that would maybe get printed. Back then journalists had to be tricked into writing falsehoods. Now that they are on board with the deceit, no tricks are necessary.
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