Media Manipulation and CIA Influence

Since the invention of the printing press,

there's been a battle to control disseminated information.

In the early 1900s, oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller took control of every newspaper and news editor of his era.

He became America's first billionaire,

paving the way for the power hungry ever since.

Thus began the gold rush for the modern world's most precious resource,

the narrative. Do you have any people being paid by the CIA who are contributing to a major circulation American journal?

During a Senate committee investigation, it was revealed that the CIA had been conducting a covert operation to infiltrate and control U.S. media.

They called it Operation Mockingbird. We do have people who submit pieces to American journals.

Do you have any people paid by the CIA who are working for television networks?

This I think gets into the kind of details, Mr. Chairman, that I'd like to get into in an executive session.

Over 3,000 CIA-contracted and trained operatives were placed in key positions within top media outlets.

Posing as editors and journalists, these well-paid actors never dared to question the effect of their lies on the world beyond their cozy studio.

How often does the CIA manipulate the media in this way?

It goes beyond your wildest imagination.

Setting up student organizations so they could draw radical students in, 5,000 university professors co-opted to help the CIA manipulate people's minds.

Journalists in the U.S., including big-name journalists, co-opted to function routinely to help the CIA put out stories and biases to the world.

As this 1952 CIA memo says,

the aim is controlling an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will.

It's a great brainwashing process to change the perception of reality of every American To such an extent,

no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.

Would you say that continues today?

Well, yeah, I would think probably for a reporter it would continue today, but because of all of the revelations, I think you've got to be much more careful about it.

So how do we know that Operation Mockingbird still is in effect? Well, we don't.

It was the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that opened the door for predatory corporations to monopolize the industries of print and broadcast.

This bill protects consumers against monopolies.

It guarantees the diversity of voices. Today, a handful of corporate empires own and control the vast majority of everything you read,

hear, and watch.

From the biggest movie studios,

television and radio networks, newspapers and magazines, to the vast universe of internet news and entertainment sites.

Amazon has transformed its operations in response to COVID-19 to protect employees and keep packages flowing.

The company is keeping its employees safe and healthy while still delivering those packages to the outdoors.

The company is keeping its employees safe and healthy. The company is keeping its employees safe and healthy.

Millions of Americans staying at home. Millions of Americans staying at home. Millions of Americans staying at home.

Millions of Americans staying at home. And that is how it works.

It's like a house of mirrors where you're seeing the same thing over and over and over again,

except it's distorted.

There's an industry that is paid to go after and target journalists' whistleblowers and inundate our consciousness and the images we see to try to ruin,

destroy, or smear the idea that they don't like or the person who's delivering it.

You smear somebody with falsehoods and all the rest, and then you merchandise it.

And then you write it, and they'll say, see, it's reported in the press, so they have that validation that the press reported the smear,

and then it's called the wrap-up smear.

Now I'm going to merchandise the press's report on the smear that we made. And it's a tactic.

Welcome back, everyone. News personalities are not the only high-paid actors to serve the propaganda machine.

Most late-night talk shows are owned by the same corporate overlords and thus follow the same script,

only laced with a laugh.

Our main story tonight concerns conspiracy theories. Last week tonight with John Oliver featured a skit entitled,

Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories.

Doctor claimed that the moon landing was faked.

First thing to note here is that Mr. Oliver opens with commentary about conspiracy theories that are completely unrelated to coronavirus.

This is a standard tactic used by propagandists to set a tone so that anything that follows will be seen through the lens of absurdity.

Clandemic, a pseudo-documentary filled with a hodgepodge of conspiracy theories.

Mr. Oliver then does his best to debunk Dr. Judy's claim that she was arrested but never charged with a crime.

She was absolutely criminally charged. This was not an oversight, but a blatant lie.

Prior to the taping of this episode,

Mr. Oliver had the official arrest documents that clearly prove that Dr. Judy was never charged with a crime.

Mr. Oliver then attempts to debunk the idea that a beach,

aka nature,

holds any value in boosting our body's natural immune system.

Instead of challenging a point with science,

he kills it with a smear.

Everything that you just said is insane.

Television is not the truth.

We deal in illusions, man. None of it is true.

But you people sit there day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds.

We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here.

You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal.

This is mass madness, you maniacs.

In God's name, you people are the real thing. We are the illusion.

So turn off your television sets.

Turn them off now.

Turn them off right now.

Turn them off and leave them off.

Turn them off right in the middle of this sentence I'm speaking to you now.

Turn them off.