Mockingbird, the 1975 Church Committee, and Fake News
One of the things Donald Trump is most known for is his singular attack on the establishment media apparatus, an operation he so famously calls “fake news.” It is one of my disappointments that many conservative thinkers are jumping ship on Trump, considering exactly how much he spoke (speaks) to issues of corruption so many Americans knew. He was (still is) a speaker of We the People, strange as his methods may seem at times. He was a wartime president–his words not mine–and if things turn out, he will be again to finish the job.
President Trump knows the history behind Operation Mockingbird. His assault on the media was not just couched in made-for-TV drama and spice; it is couched in a history that tells the tale of sinister, below-the-surface infiltration of the mainstream media by the U.S. government, a Trojan horse attack that has made a shambles of this country.
Operation Mockingbird is the moniker for the CIA’s activity in manipulating the news published and broadcast in the United States and all over the world. This operation was under review in a 1970s Senate hearing, led by Frank Church, a Democrat who served as a United States Senator from Idaho from 1957 to 1980.
It is safe to say that Senator Church was not in the mold of today’s Democrat.
The truth is that the CIA has been working to control the minds and thoughts of Americans and people the world over for decades. They have pushed billions and billions of people towards a specific ideology, a poisonous worldview. Much of this might be considered conspiracy theory today. This is the case only because young citizens have not been taught the truth–a reality long ago dictated by this very same CIA and very same Mockingbird operation. In today’s political discourse, stories like this–legitimate ones with a wealth of information ripe for the reading for literally anyone that cares just a little bit–is lumped in with lunatic conspiracies pushed by only a fringe few. And that is a shame.
Mockingbird is alive and well in 2023. It is still singing, as I hope to show in a series of articles to come on the heels of this one.
The above 1975 hearing on Mockingbird was a turning point in exposing the operation for what it was. It unveiled the lengths the CIA went to to influence public discourse through the media, including newspapers, magazines, television, radio, book publishers, and others. Such an inside job seems frightening enough when one considers electronic media like TV and radio; it becomes apocalyptic when one next considers that the CIA had its fingers in those public school textbooks.
I am a somewhat avid researcher of “forbidden” history. People would not believe the knowledge kept secret from us. People would not believe the complexity of the lies.
The CIA admitted to their infiltration of the media in order to mind control the American people, and they subsequently published in 1973 the Family Jewels, “a set of reports detailing illegal, inappropriate and otherwise sensitive activities” they conducted from 1959 to 1973.
William Casey, former director of the CIA, once said this about the goal of the agency: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”
Chilling. So exact and direct. And yet it is in this exactness that they hide.
Here is an excerpt from a highly informative piece from The Transnational, where we see one George H.W. Bush mentioned….
In 1975, the CIA admitted their manipulation of mainstream media in order to forge and redirect the opinions of American citizens. They admitted that information was distorted in order to fit specific agendas. Following a report published by the U.S. Congress in 1976: “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.”
Although in 1975 George H.W. Bush publicly ended the CIA relations with the U.S. media, the CIA is still actively involved with foreign news organisations, which in turn, feed the United States media with information.
Bush established that ‘the CIA will not enter into any paid or contractual relationships with any full-time or part-time news correspondent accredited by any United States news service, newspaper, periodical, radio or television network or station’ (Slate 2018).
Although in 1976, Colby claimed that Central Intelligence had broken all relations and ties with journalists in 1973, this is hard to believe (Harrock 1976). Moreover, he also stated that he did not see any harm in purchasing information from ‘part-time correspondents who sell their information to news organisations in the country’ (Harrock 1976)….
In essence, mass media is able to implement manipulative strategies in order to alter ‘global perception’ about events, people, and situations (Washington 2017; citing Davis 2008). Certainly, it would be naive to believe that the government has stopped paying journalists ‘to spread disinformation’ (Washington 2017). The United States are often the first to spread information in order to serve their own objectives: as Washington (2017) points out, “the government plants disinformation in American media in order to mislead foreigners.”
George H.W. Bush. The JFK assassination. The Vietnam War. Follow the money.
George W. Bush. 9/11. Afghanistan. Iraq. Follow the money.
What stories the media tell us. What the textbooks say.
Allllll the anomalies.
Just think about it.
Maui.
Just think about it all.
The 1975 Church hearing revelations apparently led to national mistrust of the media and more focused efforts to push the importance of media ethics, although clearly I was not around to gauge the veracity of that social dynamic. The truth of the matter is that the CIA didn’t go anywhere, and they certainly were not deterred by these hearings. Evil is never deterred. Their abuses are felt clearly today, to an even worse degree because of the brazen amount of gaslighting and projection being bombarded on American citizens. Well-meaning Americans know what they see is wrong. They know what they hear is a lie. And yet the people delivering the “news” to them seem so confident not only in the content being delivered, but in the slander and smear against anyone who would dare think anything else.
And then so often you add the dramatic music for effect.
It makes the show all so believable.
Trump understood all of this when he went on the offensive in 2015. He still understands it. “Fake News” is not just something he yells at the cameras at the back of his rallies or at White House press conferences. It is the manifestation of a whole history of media infiltration by America’s very own CIA. It is a very real and insidious operation with historical roots that go back decades, a true enemy of the people.
May everyone named directly or referenced indirectly ask forgiveness and do penance for their sins against America and God. I fight this information war in the spirit of justice and love for the innocent, but I have been reminded of the need for mercy and prayers for our enemies. I am a sinner in need of redemption as well, for my sins are many. In the words of Jesus Christ himself, Lord forgive us all, for we know not what we do.
