Talk:The CIA and journalism

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The big picture story is about the CIA and journalism; past through to present;

So I thought the best place to start would be to go back to square one and start assembling the key articles that are beyond dispute and see if we can build it from there. And I think better to look at the broader picture of CIA and Journalism.

--Bob Burton 07:07, 11 Oct 2004 (EDT)

Affirmed. Leave Operation Mockingbird aside and apart for review and substantiation. Thanks.--Maynard 23:22, 24 Jan 2005 (EST)

I'm relocating this here from the main CIA page. I'll post some notes in a minute --Bob Burton 00:10, 6 November 2006 (EST)

CIA Subversion of Media

Operation Mockingbird is a Central Intelligence Agency operation to influence domestic and foreign media, whose activities were made public during the Church Committee investigation in 1975 (published 1976). The word Mockingbird was first used by Deborah Davis in Katharine the Great (1979). There is no evidence that the CIA called it this. Cord Meyer said that when he joined the operation in 1951 it was so secret that it did not have a name. [1]

Carl Bernstein, who had worked with Bob Woodward in the investigation of Watergate, provided further information about Operation Mockingbird in an article in Rolling Stone in October 1977. Bernstein claimed that over a twenty-five year period over 400 American journalists secretly carried out assignments for the CIA. It turned out - that Deep Throat was senior CIA official Richard Ober, who was running Operation Chaos for Richard Nixon.[2]. As many as twenty award winning journalist exposes the myth of free press. [3]

Some notes on this:

  • It seems like to logical place to start this article is by first outlining exactly what the Church committee discovered/revealed bout the CIA and its influence oover/use of journalists; Just found a link to the Church Committee report on the Dept of State website http://foia.state.gov/Reports/ChurchReport.asp;
  • "The word Mockingbird was first used by Deborah Davis in Katharine the Great (1979)" - I assuming this was a book but in the absence of further detail on who she is and what she wrote this doesn't really help much. Did she coin the term Operation Mockingbird to describe a CIA operation that previously had no name?
  • I don't know that referencing Wikipedia on what Cord Meyer says really helps much; a better secondary source or best of all the primary source would be preferable;
  • Richard Ober as Deep Throat? More recent revelations are that it was Mark Felt; apart from which I can't see what Operation Chaso had to do with the CIA and journalism;
  • the only section of that that stacks up is Bernstein disclosing 400 journalists being influenced to vary degrees by the CIA in his Rolling STone article. However, there is only a snippet of the article online.

Given the lack of detail from credible sources and more context, this material is better off on the talk page. --Bob Burton 00:25, 6 November 2006 (EST)

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