(ORDO NEWS) — Modern Western media are often criticized for their apparent collaboration with the government, but it all started much earlier.
The CIA has already actively tried to control the media. At the start of the Cold War, Special Projects Director Frank Wisner launched a top-secret project to buy influence in the mainstream media.
He created “Mockingbird” specifically for this, based on instructions from above, to create an organization engaged in sabotage, propaganda and subversive activities against hostile states through domestic and foreign media.
Wisner then attracted journalists and news organizations, including prominent figures such as Philip Graham, publisher of the Washington Post. In fact, they became real spies and propagandists.
Agents have held positions at ABC, NBC, CBS, The Associated Press, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, and other key players in the news media.
By the 1950s, the CIA had an extensive network of agents in America’s most prominent news organizations, companies, and universities.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that Rolling Stone and The New York Times reported on the intersection of ties between the CIA and prominent news organizations.
A congressional report followed in 1976 documenting that the CIA relies on networks of several hundred foreigners around the world to obtain intelligence and influence public opinion through propaganda.
Although the Mockingbird program was officially terminated, it is believed by many to continue to this day.
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