by Arjun Walia, Collective Evolution
The CIA’s connections to mainstream media are well documented. Take Operation Mockingbird, for example, a program developed by the agency to infiltrate mainstream media and feed them stories that suit the narrative of the agency, for ‘national security’ purposes. It was actually birthed out of the Office for Strategic Services (OSS), which, during the second World War, established a network of journalists and psychological warfare experts. Back then, these were propaganda campaigns, or fake news campaigns in essence. One old example from the OSS can be looked at by examining the Career of Richard Helms. He eventually become the CIA’s director, and was recruited by his own supervisor at the United Press International’s Berlin Bureau to join the OSS’s “black propaganda” program.
The list of connections is extensive. For example, a 1991 declassified document also highlights this close relationship between mainstream media and the agency. The document states that the CIA task force “now has relationships with reporters from every major wire service, newspaper, news weekly, and television network in the nation,” and that “this has helped” them “turn some ‘intelligence failure’ stories into ‘intelligence success’ stories.” It also explains how the agency has “persuaded reporters to postpone, change, hold, or even scrap stories.”
As James F. Tracy, a former professor of communications at Florida Atlantic University, emphasizes:
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 story–indeed, one that media historians are reluctant to examine.
Not long ago, Emma Best from Muckrock wrote an article about how, in 1984, the CIA planned to infiltrate academia and media, and her article was retweeted by Edward Snowden. You can view that document here, and read more about it here.
Anderson Cooper
The information above makes it clear why it should really come as no surprise that Anderson Cooper, CNN’s primary anchor, and host of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360, also has connections to the intelligence agency, and probably still does. The document presented above shows close “relationships with reporters from every major television network in the nation,” so it’s reasonable to assume the same of Cooper.
What lends even more credibility to that hypothesis is the fact that, while attending Yale University as an undergraduate, he was actually an intern at the CIA. Furthermore, his uncle, William Henry Vanderbilt III, was an Executive Officer of the Special Operations Branch of the OSS under the spy organization’s founder, William “Wild Bill” Donovan. He also reached the rank of captain in the navy during WW2. (Alternate Source)
Cooper also comes from one of the richest families in American history, and one of the wealthiest figures on the planet, Cornelius Vanderbilt, also known as “Commodor Vanderbuilt,” who built his wealth on railroads and shipping.
As you can see above, the link between mainstream media and intelligence agencies is strong. Nobody can really deny that, as it’s been known about for decades. Here’s a clip from a hearing that was held on the topic in the 1950s to illustrate that point.
Apart from all this evidence, those from within mainstream media have spoken out multiple times about it.
Dr. Udo Ulfkotte, a prominent German journalist and editor for more than two decades, is one example. He blew the whistle on public television, stating that he was forced to publish the works of intelligence agencies under his own name and that noncompliance with these orders would result in him losing his job.
Sharyl Attkisson and Amber Lyon, both well-known mainstream media reporters and journalists, have also exposed funded movements by political, corporate, and other special interests, and have revealed that they are routinely paid by the U.S. government as well as foreign governments to selectively report and distort information on certain events. (source)(source)
So, has anybody ever confronted Anderson Cooper about this? Yes, Luke Rudkowski from We Are Change did.
The Issue of “Fake News”
“The problem of fake news isn’t solved by hoping for a referee, but rather because we as citizens, we as users of these services, help each other. We talk and we share and we point out what is fake. We point out what is true. The answer to bad speech is not censorship, the answer to bad speech is more speech. We have to exercise and spread the idea that critical thinking matters, now more than ever, given the fact that lies seem to be getting more popular.”
It’s mind-altering how we’ve come to a point where authority figures, like the Disney Corporation, have teamed up with Facebook and other online organizations to censor information which they deem to be fake news, yet mainstream media has been dishing out fake news for years. Now they are fighting hard against alternative media, which has gained billions of eyes in viewership over the past few years.
The internet has provided a medium for researchers of all kinds to share information that mainstream media never covers, and granted, there is fake news out there, but that begs an important question: Can’t we decide for ourselves? Are we not capable of thinking critically and examining sources for ourselves? Censorship rules our world, and the fact that even more censorship is taking place as a result of truth is concerning.
Truth alone has the ability to help shift consciousness and transform the human experience, and as a result of this shift, a lot of powerful people will lose their control over this planet, which is why I think this entire fake news debacle continues to push forward.
Related CE Articles Going Into More Detail
Declassified CIA Documents Show Agency’s Control Over Mainstream Media & Academia
Document Surfaces Showing CIA’s Plans To Infiltrate Academia & Change University/College Curriculums
The CIA & The Media: 50 Facts The World Should Know
