Masters of Deceit: Propaganda, Disinformation and Corruption Options

[John Simkin]

Over the last couple of years I have spent a lot of time developing my website on the JFK assassination. During my research I have discovered a great deal about the way the media control the information that gets to the American public. The most important aspect of this is the CIA’s Operation Mockingbird.

According to the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities report published in 1976: "The CIA currently maintains a network of several hundred foreign individuals around the world who provide intelligence for the CIA and at times attempt to influence opinion through the use of covert propaganda. These individuals provide the CIA with direct access to a large number of newspapers and periodicals, scores of press services and news agencies, radio and television stations, commercial book publishers, and other foreign media outlets." Frank Church argued that the cost of misinforming the world cost American taxpayers an estimated $265 million a year.

In February, 1976, George Bush, the Director of the CIA, announced a new policy: “Effective immediately, the CIA will not enter into any paid or contract relationship with any full-time or part-time news correspondent accredited by any U.S. news service, newspaper, periodical, radio or television network or station.” However, he added that the CIA would continue to “welcome” the voluntary, unpaid cooperation of journalists.

As a result Operation Mockingbird continued and in fact, it is more successful today than it has ever been. I have decided to spend the next couple of years looking into how Mockingbird works today. I am going to call this section “Masters of Deceit: Propaganda, Disinformation and Corruption”.

One of my first subjects will be Roger Ailes, the man who runs Fox News. According to the excellent “Outfoxed”, every day, Ailes or one of his assistant’s sends out a memo to all the Fox producers on the interpretation that Murdoch wants. For example, one memo said that they must do everything they could to make sure that 9/11 does not become another “Watergate”.

One polling organization attempted to discover the impact that different news organizations had on people’s political knowledge. They discovered that regular watchers of Fox News showed the highest levels of political ignorance. See this report, Misperceptions, the Media and the Iraq War, published in October, 2003:

A new study based on a series of seven US polls conducted from January through September of this year reveals that before and after the Iraq war, a majority of Americans have had significant misperceptions and these are highly related to support for the war in Iraq.

The polling, conducted by the Program on International Policy (PIPA) at the University of Maryland and Knowledge Networks, also reveals that the frequency of these misperceptions varies significantly according to individuals’ primary source of news. Those who primarily watch Fox News are significantly more likely to have misperceptions, while those who primarily listen to NPR or watch PBS are significantly less likely.

An in-depth analysis of a series of polls conducted June through September found 48% incorrectly believed that evidence of links between Iraq and al Qaeda have been found, 22% that weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, and 25% that world public opinion favored the US going to war with Iraq. Overall 60% had at least one of these three misperceptions.

Such misperceptions are highly related to support for the war. Among those with none of the misperceptions listed above, only 23% support the war. Among those with one of these misperceptions, 53% support the war, rising to 78% for those who have two of the misperceptions, and to 86% for those with all 3 misperceptions. Steven Kull, director of PIPA, comments, “While we cannot assert that these misperceptions created the support for going to war with Iraq, it does appear likely that support for the war would be substantially lower if fewer members of the public had these misperceptions.”

The frequency of Americans’ misperceptions varies significantly depending on their source of news. The percentage of respondents who had one or more of the three misperceptions listed above is shown below.

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/art...02&lb=brusc