General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)By Prof. James F. Tracy
Global Research, August 28, 2015
Since the end of World War Two the Central Intelligence Agency has been a major force in US and foreign news media, exerting considerable influence over what the public sees, hears and reads on a regular basis. CIA publicists and journalists alike will assert they have few, if any, relationships, yet the seldom acknowledged history of their intimate collaboration indicates a far different storyindeed, one that media historians are reluctant to examine.
Kennedy_CIAWhen seriously practiced, the journalistic profession involves gathering information concerning individuals, locales, events, and issues. In theory such information informs people about their world, thereby strengthening democracy. This is exactly the reason why news organizations and individual journalists are tapped as assets by intelligence agencies and, as the experiences of German journalist Udo Ulfkotte (entry 47 below) suggest, this practice is at least as widespread today as it was at the height of the Cold War.
Consider the coverups of election fraud in 2000 and 2004, the events of September 11, 2001, the invasions Afghanistan and Iraq, the destabilization of Syria, and the creation of ISIS. These are among the most significant events in recent world history, and yet they are also those much of the American public is wholly ignorant of. In an era where information and communication technologies are ubiquitous, prompting many to harbor the illusion of being well-informed, one must ask why this condition persists.
Further, why do prominent US journalists routinely fail to question other deep events that shape Americas tragic history over the past half century, such as the political assassinations of the 1960s, or the central role played by the CIA major role in international drug trafficking?
Popular and academic commentators have suggested various reasons for the almost universal failure of mainstream journalism in these areas, including newsroom sociology, advertising pressure, monopoly ownership, news organizations heavy reliance on official sources, and journalists simple quest for career advancement. There is also, no doubt, the influence of professional public relations maneuvers. Yet such a broad conspiracy of silence suggests another province of deception examined far too infrequentlyspecifically the CIA and similar intelligence agencies continued involvement in the news media to mold thought and opinion in ways scarcely imagined by the lay public.
The following historical and contemporary factsby no means exhaustiveprovides a glimpse of how the power such entities possess to influence if not determine popular memory and what respectable institutions deem to be the historical record.
CONTINUED...
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-cia-and-the-media-50-facts-the-world-needs-to-know/5471956
Thank you for the kind words, Judi Lynn! Your friendship means the world to me.
PS: This weekend I had occasion to meet a group of outstanding young people entering a program at a Michigan university. Looking at a world map I noted the Pacific Ocean and asked one pre-med student what he thought of the Fukushima disaster. He had never heard of it -- and this kid is one of the top high school graduates in all of Michigan. I told him how three reactors were still in meltdown, out of control and dumping radiation into the Pacific, some of which had been measured around the world. He reiterated having heard nothing about it. That also is why DU matters so damn much.
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