A "Liberal" Media?
"The CIA owns everyone of any significance in the major media."
--Former CIA Director William Colby
In the past, the Right Wing penetrated the Media through such CIA programs as Operation Mockingbird, which had placed most of the US Media leaders on the CIA payroll. In the 70's, the Church and Pike Reports to Congress exposed this and other illegal domestic CIA operations. Then, in a Rolling Stone expose (10/20/77), Carl Bernstein reported that there had been over 400 US journalists on the CIA's books. He also named such high-level Mockingbird operatives as Katherine Graham (Washington Post), Henry Luce (Time), William Paley (CBS), the Sulzbergers (New York Times) and "publishing magnate" Richard Mellon Scaife.
After this embarrassment, it was necessary for the Right to use its own private network to replace Mockingbird. As a result, there is now the Cato Institute, with Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch (Fox, NY Post, TV Guide) on the Board with ATT/TCI's Malone
Another big contributor to Cato is Viacom, which recently acquired CBS. Consequently, CBS/Viacom is now headed by Sumner Redstone, who is yet another powerful right wing figure with a WWII intelligence background and apparent ties to OSS/CIA figures
Cato serves the purpose of infusing the Media with Right Wing Propaganda, along with such organizations as Accuracy in Media(AIM), the Independent Women's Forum, the Western Journalism Center and -- of course -- the Heritage Foundation (See Main Page for Details <index.html>).
The difference between the days of Operation Mockingbird and the present situation is that, instead of actually placing network executives, publishers, editors, reporters and pundits on the CIA payroll, their contemporary counterparts are now members of the Right Wing Think Tanks*. In addition to Cato's Murdoch, some high profile examples are MSNBC's Laura Ingraham (a notorious "Scaifette" from the Independent Women's Forum
and ABC's John Stossel <14> . CNN's Kate O'Beirne is a Heritage fellow (and previous VP) who is a regular columnist for the National Review. Also, old Bonesman/CIA hand William F. Buckley Jr. is the Editor of the arch-conservative Review. The National Review's President and Chairman is none other than Thomas Rhodes, who was recently a Heritage Board member. Other right wing journals financed by these sugar-daddies (and mommies) include the American Spectator, Human Events and Murdoch's Weekly Standard.
*.
Of course, Rupert Murdoch's Fox News is packed with Right Wing spokesmodels, including the Free Republic icon and Hate Radio DJ Sean Hannity, and Tony Snow, previously a Bush speechwriter and journalist from Reverend Moon's "Washington Times"
The lone "token" liberal, Alan Colmes, has to share a show with the overbearing and bombastic Hannity -- some "fair and balanced" programming!
It goes without saying that Rush Limbaugh is in deep with the Right Wing, especially through the Heritage Foundation and the "Town Hall" program. Furthermore, Rush's show is broadcast by ABC, which was acquired in the eighties by Capital Cities--a suspected CIA front. Check out this history of Cap. Cities.
...the CIA has bought many domestic media companies. A prime example is Capital Cities, created in 1954 by CIA businessman William Casey (who would later become Reagan’s CIA director). Another founder was Lowell Thomas, a close friend and business contact with CIA Director Allen Dulles. Another founder was CIA businessman Thomas Dewey. By 1985, Capital Cities had grown so powerful that it was able to buy an entire TV network: ABC
The above information is drawn from Dennis W. Mazzocco's "Networks of Power: Corporate TV's Threat to Democracy" , as is this excerpt:
Moreover, the type of elite control which occurs with economic concentration in the media industry can directly affect the news itself. For example, William Casey, Director of the CIA, was a major stockholder in Capital Cities which originally took over ABC. As a result of his influence and that of other officials, certain stories that were sensitive to the CIA were not covered and the way other news stories were covered was sometimes affected. In addition, with TCI controlling the cable TV systems in many markets, it has the ability to limit the type of information that is available in many people's homes. It has been suggested that TCI is now contemplating offering three conservative-leaning channels in some markets, and eliminating the only liberal-leaning one it carries.
Even though ABC/Capital Cities was acquired by Disney in the nineties, it's a safe bet that the CIA has not been cut out of the picture. In fact--bizarre as it sounds--the CIA was actually lending a helping hand to Disney at the time that the ABC/Cap Cities deal was going down, as Jim Hightower reported in 1995.
The CIA's former station-chief in Paris, plus four of his undercover officers, were summarily expelled from France. Seems they were caught trying to bribe French trade officials...the CIA is now reduced to "commercial espionage" against our allies --on behalf of American corporations...They were trying to get the French to let more Walt Disney movies into their country.
This is Jim Hightower saying . . . If Congress is serious about cutting the budget, how about starting with the $13 billion the CIA is frittering-away on spy games for Walt Disney?
(This may seem almost laughable, but keep in mind that Uncle Walt has been gone a long time. Disney is now just another huge entertainment conglomerate run by Michael Eisner--a CEO as shrewd as they come.)
No doubt, articles like these did not keep Hightower from being axed by ABC radio later that year In fact, while ABC/Disney has been aggressively pushing right wingers like Rush and Dr. Laura, they have been firing many of their counterparts from the left. Just this March, both Stephanie Miller in LA and Mike Malloy in Chicago were cancelled by ABC radio.
Meanwhile, the Right Wing has also been attacking progressive voices from the Independent Media Sector. The highest profile example is the Bay Area's Pacifica Radio (KPFA), which was targeted early on by professional scapegoater David Horowitz Horowitz heads the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, which plays a key role in the New Right's campaign to dominate the Media. As yet another arm of the Heritage network, CSPC has received millions of dollars from the Bradley, Olin and Scaife Foundations.
With the New Right leaders exerting such a pervasive influence over the Media, it is now absurd to call it "liberal".
http://www.democraticunderground.com/duforum/DCForumID45/1908.html
