Lacing the Media with Messages

'Relying heavily upon established circles of contacts within the nation's media elites, Dulles recruited key members of the media to work directly for the CIA under Operation Mockingbird. Mockingbird was a psychological information campaign against the American people. In a campaign that would lead to acceptance of blanket secrecy for "national security", "the Red Scare" became the excuse for spending vast sums of money on weapons systems and an increase in covert operations both in foreign countries and within the United States. In the 1950s and 1960s, movies, news articles, books, radio and television programs were carefully laced with anti-communist messages and images designed to produce an acceptance of the policies being promoted by the defense elite's propaganda machine.

"Among the executives who lent their cooperation to the Agency were William Paley of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Henry Luce of Time Inc., Arthur Hays Sulzberger of the New York Times, Barry Bingham Sr. of the Louisville Courier-Journal and James Copley of the Copley News Service. Other organizations which cooperated with the CIA include the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, The Miami Herald, and the old Saturday Evening Post and New York Herald-Tribune. By far the most valuable of these associations, according to CIA officials, have been with The New York Times, CBS, and Time Inc."'

"The CIA and the Media", Carl Bernstein, Rolling Stone, Oct 20 1977

From: Project Censored: US Electromagnetic Weapons and Human Rights (pdf file)