***HG EXCLUSIVE*** In 1948, the Central Intelligence Agency began a covert program codenamed Operation Mockingbird. It was a secret operation with the sole goal of manipulating the media inside the United States and abroad. It was initially organized by Cord Meyer and Allen W. Dulles, and was later led by Frank Wisner after Dulles became the head of the CIA. By 1953, Operation Mockingbird had major influence over 25 newspapers and wire agencies. The usual methodology was placing reports developed from intelligence provided by the CIA to witting or unwitting reporters. Those reports would then be repeated or cited by the preceding reporters which in turn would then be cited throughout the media wire services. These networks were run by people with well-known liberal but pro-American big business and anti-Soviet views such as William S. Paley (CBS), Henry Luce (Time and Life Magazine), Arthur Hays Sulzberger (New York Times), Alfred Friendly (managing editor of the Washington Post), Jerry OLeary (Washington Star), Hal Hendrix (Miami News), Barry Bingham, Sr. (Louisville Courier-Journal), James Copley (Copley News Services) and Joseph Harrison (Christian Science Monitor). Some 3,000 salaried and contract CIA employees were eventually engaged in propaganda efforts inside of the United States. Wisner was able to constrain newspapers from reporting about certain events, including the CIA plots to overthrow the governments of Iran and Guatemala. Many of the major newspapers in the country began being headed by former Colonels from the armed forces who would simply refuse to print stories when against CIA wishes, or at the very least alter them reflect the wanted spin. Reporters who were not involved in Operation Mockingbird that were able to get stories in print were then attacked by and discredited by journalists from around the country that were involved in Operation Mockingbird. When J. Edgar Hoover became jealous of the CIAs growing power he passed information to Senator Joseph McCarthy that would paint the CIA assets in media as communist sympathizers. With his powerful network threatened, Wisner was directed to unleash Mockingbird on McCarthy. Drew Pearson, Joe Alsop, Jack Anderson, Walter Lippmann and Ed Murrow all engaged in intensely negative coverage of McCarthy. According to Jack Anderson, his political reputation was permanently damaged by the press coverage orchestrated by Wisner. After Richard M. Bissell, Jr. lost his post as Deputy Director for Plans in 1962, Tracy Barnes took over the running of Mockingbird. According to Evan Thomas in his book, The Very Best Men (1995), Barnes planted editorials about political candidates who were regarded as pro-CIA. Although whispers of this operations existence began getting louder, it wasnt until William Colby testified in front of the Church Committee in 1975. The CIA currently maintains a network of several hundred foreign individuals around the world who provide intelligence for the CIA and at times attempt to influence opinion through the use of covert propaganda. These individuals provide the CIA with direct access to a large number of newspapers and periodicals, scores of press services and news agencies, radio and television stations, commercial book publishers, and other foreign media outlets. In February 1976, George H. W. Bush, the recently appointed Director of the CIA, announced a new policy: Effective immediately, the CIA will not enter into any paid or contract relationship with any full-time or part-time news correspondent accredited by any U.S. news service, newspaper, periodical, radio or television network or station. He added that the CIA would continue to welcome the voluntary, unpaid cooperation of journalists. *One of the most vital pieces of evidence in President Kennedys assassination was the Zapruder film. Henry Luce (Time and Life Magazine) was not a fan of President Kennedys handling of Cuba. In fact, after the President ordered all CIA and anti-Castro dissidents to cease running sabotage missions to Cuba, Henry Luce lent his personal boat to be used in such missions in direct defiance of the President. An active participant in Operation Mockingbird, Luce purchased the Zapruder film directly following the assassination and kept it locked away for 12 years. It is hard to imagine a media outlet having the only known video copy of the most explosive assassination in the history of the United States and deciding to lock it away rather than profit from it. The American people would not set eyes on this hugely significant piece of evidence until March 6, 1975, on the ABC late-night television show Good Night America, hosted by Geraldo Rivera. **Joseph P Kennedy is rumored to have had an affair with Henry Luces wife, Clare Boothe Luce. That could not have helped things. (This affair is reportedly to have taken place in the 1940s.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 23:58:30 +0000
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