Operation Mockingbird | Declassified #11

Whoever controls the information or even the people delivering the information, controls the people, thus has the world. The way you look at the world, what you know about it comes from a branch of TV networks called the news media. It’s obvious that the flow of the media should be unbiased because if it’s not then people won’t be able to make the right choices, about politics, society, “normal”, and other related things. The world is what we’re shown, unless one goes into some research individually. Now, how blurry the lens is is paramount, it can be adjusted to fit the controllers ideas, if there’s a controller, I guess most of us know that there is, especially people living in India, the news media is just a puppet, but just like most developments in the last century, India isn’t the one winning the race in information manipulation, US was there way before.

Operation Mockingbird was a CIA program that enlisted more than 400 American journalists, as well as journalists around the world, to manipulate public opinion by spreading propaganda or what we call it today, fake news. The operation (then known as Project Mockingbird) began as a wiretapping operation initiated by President JFK to identify the sources of government leaks by eavesdropping on the communications of journalists.

As far back as the end of World War II, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has played a major role in news media in the U.S. as well as in foreign nations, exerting considerable influence over what the public sees, hears and reads on a regular basis. Operation Mockingbird was a large-scale program within the CIA to manipulate news media for propaganda purposes. The program developed out of the CIA’s forefather, the Office for Strategic Services (OSS), which existed from 1942 to 1947. During World War II, Operation Mockingbird had established a network of journalists and psychological warfare experts, operating primarily in the European theatre, that “theatre” now has transformed into Hollywood (to read about it click here). Other possible origins include the early years of the Cold War, which began in 1947, when efforts were made by the governments of the Soviet Union and the United States to use media companies to influence public opinion internationally. Operation Mockingbird is thought to have officially begun as its own entity in the early 1950s, funding student groups, cultural clubs and magazines as front organisations. According to author Deborah Davis, Operation Mockingbird recruited leading American journalists into a propaganda network and influenced the operations of front groups. CIA support of front groups was exposed when a 1967 Ramparts magazine article reported that the National Student Association received funding from the CIA. In 1975, Church Committee Congressional investigations revealed Agency connections with journalists and civic groups. None of the reports, however, mentions by name an Operation Mockingbird coordinating or supporting these activities. Mockingbird operation/project ran officially for nearly three decades in the US. With the current conspicuous media manipulation that we see daily, there possibly exists a better project with a new code name, which probably will be declassified when it ends. So yes, this operation doesn’t exist in the 21st Century, but that isn’t to say that there is no media manipulation; the reason knowing about Mockingbird is important is because it shows that there were literal funded projects that actively worked to manipulate public opinion and spy on journalists, with the current technology what is to say that they don’t do the same right now, oh, well Snowden already cleared that air.

One of my favorite quotes – so truthful.

I hope we all know about Julian Assange, well, when the 2015 batch of Hilary Clinton emails were released by the US State Department, an agency of the U.S. government was exposed trying to control the public narrative over WikiLeaks in 2011 by influencing media outlets coverage. The emails from Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs at the time, Philip J. Crowley, expose the U.S. State Department “planting” a number of “questions and concerns” with CBS News for a 60 minutes piece on WikiLeaks, featuring Julian Assange.

“I just received confirmation from 60 Minutes that a piece on Julian Assange will air Sunday night. He will be the only person featured…” [Crowley wrote.] “60 Minutes assures me that they raised a number of questions and concerns we planted with them during the course of the interview.

Email of Hillary Clinton referring to the interview of Assange.

The operation was a subtle one, nothing like the human experiments whose effects charr the soul of the reader and then they think that the world is different than they imagined, Mockingbird was made so that the people would never think that. After the WWII when the American initiative for Western Europe was initiated (known as the Marshall Plan), the US transferred over $12 Billion, some of that funding was used to bribe journalists and publishers, Frank Wisner (then CIA official) constantly looked for ways to help convince the public of the dangers of communism. [By the way this is not a rhetoric in favor of communism] Although the main objective of Operation Mockingbird was to influence the production of commercial films the CIA also occasionally initiated film projects. The best documented instance of this concerns an animated version of Animal Farm, a satirical allegory about Stalinism by George Orwell. Mockingbird was very active during the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. People like Henry Luce was able to censor stories that appeared too sympathetic towards the plight of Arbenz. Allen W. Dulles (director of CIA) was even able to keep left-wing journalists from travelling to Guatemala. This including Sydney Gruson of the New York Times.

Another important figure in this conspiracy was C. D. Jackson. He had joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1943. The following year he was appointed Deputy Chief at the Psychological Warfare Division at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). After the war, he became Managing Director of Time-Life International. When it became clear that Eisenhower stood a good chance of becoming president, the CIA arranged for Jackson to join his campaign. This involved Jackson writing speeches for Eisenhower. Jackson was rewarded in February 1953 by being appointed as Special Assistant to the President. This included the role of Eisenhower’s liaison between the CIA and the Pentagon.

One of the main concerns of the CIA was the portrayal of race-relations in Hollywood movies. It was argued that the left was using this issue to undermine the idea that America was a democracy based on equal rights. Letters from Jackson sent to the producers of films called for scenes showing African Americans mixing on equal terms with whites. One of Jackson’s proposals involved “planting black spectators in a crowd watching a golf game in the Martin and Lewis comedy The Caddy”.

According to the Eisenhower Presidential Library files in Abilene, Kansas, Jackson’s “area responsibility was loosely defined as international affairs, cold war planning, and psychological warfare. His main function was the coordination of activities aimed at interpreting world situations to the best advantage of the United States and her allies and exploiting incidents which reflected negatively on the Soviet Union , Communist China and other enemies in the Cold War.” Jackson was also involved in Operation Mockingbird. This was revealed after the death of Jackson. On December 15, 1971, Mrs. C.D. Jackson gave her husband’s papers to the Eisenhower Library. This included details that Jackson was in contact with a CIA agent in Hollywood’s Paramount Studios (I enjoyed The Terminator).

Public acts based on information, emotions yes, but those too need a stimuli, the information control is rampant and comparatively easy than it was before. The opinions we have might be fitting right into the structure laid out by the puppeteer, it seems obvious but all of us think that we ourselves can’t be manipulate, other for sure, but we can’t be, we’re too smart for that. Even for being smart enough to not fall for the skewed information, that development itself has its foundation with the very thing that it tries to not be influenced by.

Bibliography

  • https://citizentruth.org/operation-mockingbird-cia-media-manipulation/
  • https://thefreethoughtproject.com/feds-exposed-planting-talking-points-questions-60-minutes-episode-wikileaks/
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_influence_on_public_opinion
  • https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKmockingbird.htm
  • https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/operation-mockingbird/

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