{UAH} THE MEDIA AS A TOOL FOR PROPAGANDA

For my fellow Multiple degree holders, hereunder is a peek into the algorithms of misinformation

the too often we gyrate around as being independent without knowing the gaslighting tactics

being used to suck us into praising them.

We all remember how the West has always fed us with their propaganda as how Communist countries

are averse to Freedom of speech but this survey points to the contrary:

The History of News and Communication *Part Thirty-One* 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.

Frank Gardiner Wisner was one of the founding officers of the Central Intelligence Agency and played a major role in CIA operations throughout the 1950s. Wisner began his intelligence career in the Office of Strategic Services in World War II. In 1948 Frank Wisner was appointed director of the Office of Special Projects. Soon afterwards it was renamed the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC). This became the espionage and counter-intelligence branch of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Wisner was told to create an organization that concentrated on "propaganda, economic warfare; preventive direct action, including sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition and evacuation measures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, and support of indigenous anti-Communist elements in threatened countries of the free world." Later that year Wisner established Mockingbird, a program to influence the domestic American media. Wisner recruited Philip Graham (Washington Post) to run the project within the industry. Have you heard of Operation Mockingbird prior to this survey?

Yes

No

Graham himself recruited others who had worked for military intelligence during the war. This included James Truitt, Russell Wiggins, Phil Geyelin, John Hayes and Alan Barth. Others like Stewart Alsop, Joseph Alsop and James Reston, were recruited from within the Georgetown Set. According to Deborah Davis, the author of Katharine the Great (1979) : "By the early 1950s, Wisner 'owned' respected members of the New York Times, Newsweek, CBS and other communications vehicles." Were you surprised to know that mainstream media personnel in the Cold War Era were hired to spread government propaganda?

Yes

No

Undecided

Not Applicable

Allen Welsh Dulles was the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence, and its longest-serving director to date. In 1951 Allen W. Dulles persuaded Cord Meyer to join the CIA. An advocate of world government. In May, 1947, Cord Meyer was elected president of the United World Federalists. However, there is evidence that he was recruited several years earlier and had been spying on the liberal organizations he had been a member of in the later 1940s. Cord Meyer accepted the invitation to join the Central Intelligence Agency. Meyer became part of what became known as Operation Mockingbird, a CIA program to influence the mass media. In August, 1952, the Office of Policy Coordination and the Office of Special Operations (the espionage division) were merged to form the Directorate of Plans (DPP). Frank Wisner became head of this new organization and Richard Helms became his chief of operations. Mockingbird was now the responsibility of the DPP. Do you think the journalists thought of themselves as helpers of the agency or merely as patriots, agreeing to run stories that would benefit their country?

Yes

No

Undecided

Not Applicable

One of the most important journalists under the control of Operation Mockingbird was Joseph Alsop, whose articles appeared in over 300 different newspapers. Other journalists willing to promote the views of the CIA included Stewart Alsop (New York Herald Tribune), Ben Bradlee (Newsweek), James Reston (New York Times), C. D. Jackson (Time Magazine), Walter Pincus (Washington Post), Walter Winchell (New York Daily Mirror), Drew Pearson, Walter Lippmann, William Allen White, Edgar Ansel Mowrer (Chicago Daily News), Hal Hendrix (Miami News), Whitelaw Reid (New York Herald Tribune), Jerry O'Leary (Washington Star), William C. Baggs (Miami News), Herb Gold (Miami News) and Charles L. Bartlett (Chattanooga Times). According to Nina Burleigh, the author of A Very Private Woman, (1998) these journalists sometimes wrote articles that were commissioned by Frank Wisner. The CIA also provided them with classified information to help them with their work. Do you think the Journalists .....

A. realized they were spreading government propaganda

B. that they had the inside story over their competitors

C. didn't care either way as long as they had an exclusive

Other (please specify)

Not Applicable

After 1953 the network was overseen by Allen W. Dulles, director of the Central Intelligence Agency. By this time Operation Mockingbird had a major influence over 25 newspapers and wire agencies. These organizations were run by people such as William Paley (CBS), Henry Luce (Time Magazine and Life Magazine), Arthur Hays Sulzberger (New York Times), Helen Rogers Reid (New York Herald Tribune), Dorothy Schiff (New York Post), Alfred Friendly (managing editor of the Washington Post), Barry Bingham (Louisville Courier-Journal) and James S. Copley (Copley News Services). Are you surprised by how many high level media personnel were part of this CIA Operation Mockingbird?

Yes

No

Undecided

Not Applicable