by douglasherman7 [at] yahoo [dot] com (Douglas Herman)

http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/herman/herman5.html

 

"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media." ~ William Colby, Former Director, CIA

   

Most of them have been given Pulitzer Prizes for “distinguished commentary.” Their work appears in hundreds of American publications.  They command huge salaries and they appear on most of the television news programs.  Their books invariably enjoy instant access to publicity and become bestsellers.  They are the made men of the media mafia.  And they are all “owned,” as the late William Colby once admitted.

What sets the group apart from the average STR writer of independent mind is a tight-knit togetherness that allows no real discourse or original thought.  Rarely do we read an insightful observation or uncomfortable comment (the news publishers, editors and TV producers see to that). Each is a master of disinformation—distinguished commentary—that passes for learned dialogue in the mainstream media.  When Cal Thomas pens the column, “A Successful Iraq Helps Bush Agenda at Home,” few remark on the obvious. When Joseph Farah, of WorldNetDaily.com, editorializes that the US must flatten Fallujah, and then the Pentagon does it, few see the connection.  When Peter Jennings narrates a one-sided documentary dismissing the “myth” of Roswell , or when the scribes at Townhall.com adhere to a single foreign policy course that parallels that of the administration, few realize the words were appraised and accepted by those who control the major media.

 Perhaps the greatest proof of media censorship is the fact so little powerful dissent or opposing opinion is ever allowed to surface. “Noam Chomsky, who is a brilliant man,” wrote pamphleteer George Humphrey, “produced a movie titled Manufacturing Consent, and in this movie he shows that of the approximately 33,000 newspapers and magazines in our country, over 95% are controlled by eight multinational corporations.” Which explains why you and I will never appear in print in the mainstream media. When I sent my essay, Detective Columbo Asks: Was 911 an Inside Job? to every New York-based publication, I never expected or received a single response. Nor have I ever read of a similar column that broached the subject of 9-11 critically that has ever appeared in the CIA-owned, mainstream media.  Denial is a New York state of mind and healthy skepticism went out of fashion when Thoreau died.

Thus, when the Rush Limbaughs and Ann Coulters of the owned media decry the “liberal media bias,” this too is part of the agenda of disinformation. If you pan a non-existent opposition long enough and make it appear that opposition actually exists, an uninformed citizenry soon begins to believe the claim.  Recently Cal Thomas wrote of Bush policy critics: “Count on the big media in America and Europe to look for dark linings within the silver cloud.” Where exactly has this big media  been, the bobble-headed dolls of Bush policy, if not on the sidelines for the last two years, practicing patriotic cheers for those chimeras mistaken for silvery clouds? 

 Does anyone remember when, exactly, an outspoken critic of the Neocon agenda enjoyed television air time or major press coverage?  Patrick Buchanan, you say, the old Nixon crony? When all was said and done, the former Reform Party man and isolationist tossed his hat into the ring for Bush.  So much for opposition.

  A partial list of those owned in the mainstream media (MSM) might look like the one I've compiled below.  Certainly dozens, or even hundreds more, could be added.  Like the aliens in that fine film Invasion of The Body Snatchers, these pod people can replicate pretty fast.

William F. Buckley--Former CIA man, probably salaried for life.

Bill O’Reilly--Fox = CIA, like pentagrams = devil.

Tom Clancy--CIA cyborg.

Joseph Farah--Jesus was a CIA man, right?

Michael Savage—old herbalist now new Neocon ranter.

Ann Coulter—CIA poster girl?

Kathleen Parker—Pentagon spokesmodel and Rumsfeld devotee.

Richard Perle—Loyalties lie with Mossad but probably CIA too.

Norman Podhoretz—What’s good for Israel is good for America , right?

William Kristol--What’s good for the Neocons is good for America , right?

Abe Foxman--What's good for the ADL is good for America, right?

Daniel Pipes--What’s good for AIPAC is good for America, right?

Max Boot--What’s good for Zionism is good for America , right?

Thomas Friedman—What’s good for Israel . . . Are you beginning to see a pattern here?

Rush Limbaugh—CIA's favorite fat man and undercover Oxycontin operative?

James Meigs—Editor of Popular Mechanics, magazine for war toy groupies.

David Corn--Children of the corn and Company vegetable?

Andrew Sullivan--Company's Rainbow Warrior?

Art Bell—Space Cowboy and Company convert?

Cal Thomas--Company scold.

George Will—Probably enjoys inner office at CIA headquarters.

Charles Krauthammer--Probably enjoys office with a view.

Peter Jennings--Probably lives there.

Sean Hannity—Probably born there.

Robert Novak--Plame dropper?

William Safire--The Strunk & White of the Right. CIA’s venerable English professor.

 Satire aside, separately these people are pretty pathetic, befouled by lies, distortions and the spread of official government disinformation.   Together they wield enormous power, a tsunami of propaganda.  Why do they do this? Aside from huge sums of money or accolades or an ideological agenda, many may actually believe they’re doing good work. And why would the CIA want to control them?  Consider the CIA as an elite businessman’s club (much like the Mafia but with more guns and less morals), with an agenda to spread global influence, either through friendly persuasion, coercion, bribes, subterfuge or outright armed invasion. If you realize that almost all the heads of the CIA have worked in Wall Street banks, you understand the necessity of also owning all the channels of mass communication. Any policy move that shifts the ponderous American machine must be first heralded by good press releases from the media. That is how those listed above serve. They are the brainless cheerleaders, the Pentagon is the brute force, and the elite power brokers of the military/industrial/banking machine stride the sidelines calling the plays.

  Which brings us to the new breed of pod people passing for independent journalists. Not simply the Maggie Gallaghers of journalism but the true whores of the media.  If for nothing else, the Jeff Gannon-Jim Guckert sex scandal should indicate the depth of media prostitution. The only difference between Gannon and those who write for the mainstream media is that Gannon usually got undressed before he sold himself. 

 Some stories NEVER see the light of day, no matter how relevant their importance. "Except for the outbreak of news stories concerning the Franklin Credit Union-Lawrence King-Craig Spence child prostitution scandal in 1989 that involved midnight tours of the White House for underage male sex slaves from Nebraska and reached high into the upper echelons of the elder Bush administration, little has been heard about the sex crimes of top Republicans," wrote Washington insider Wayne Madsen. "The fact that Gannon/Guckert, a male escort who adopted a military theme for his clientele, was made privy to classified information involving CIA covert agent Valerie Plame and her husband's (former Ambassador Joseph Wilson) trip to Niger to investigate possible uranium shipments, has a precedent with prior GOP illegal sexcapades involving national security breaches."

 

Notice that few (if any?) of those listed above have castigated Gannon/Guckert or the Bush administration for what should be a serious breech of ethics, not to mention a serious breach of morals and our national security interests. Where’s the outrage from the Religious Right? Where’s the clamor for an independent investigation, akin to that of Ken Starr, or calls for impeachment?  What appears to be a scandal equivalent or greater than that of the Christine Keeler/ Mandy Rice-Davies call girl scandal that toppled an entire British government has been swept under the Washington rug by the our “owned” media.