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For real? Journalists who were spies for the CIA
The celebrity-journalist is not a new phenomenon
George Pillari
November 20, 2023
Category: Trusting the Media, one of the Seven Deadly Stupidities.
It may appear that the celebrity-journalist is a new phenomenon that is a creature of the explosion of the media industry since the Internet went mainstream. In fact, it is quite an old concept.
In 1953, Joseph Alsop, then one of America’s leading syndicated columnists, went to the Philippines to cover an election. He did not go because he was asked to do so by his syndicate. He did not go because he was asked to do so by the newspapers that printed his column. He went at the request of the CIA.
This passage is from The CIA and the Media written by Carl Bernstein and published in Rolling Stone Magazine in 1977. By then, this already amounted to 25+ years of the media acting as spies for the CIA. Bernstein’s research said that more than 400 journalists had carried out assignments on behalf of the CIA while they were in foreign countries.
We are not talking about scrappy, second-tier media organizations trying to break into the club. Bernstein points out that the CIA said its best information came from journalists at The New York Times, CBS, and Time Inc., three of the most respected media corporations of the era.
Defenders of the journalist-as-a-spy approach say that they were just doing their duty as U.S. citizens to help protect the country. The CIA says that foreign correspondents were well-positioned “assets” since they were afforded greater freedoms and access than most U.S. citizens. That access included such things as meetings with government officials and displays of new military capabilities.
The evidence from Bernstein’s story suggests a formal relationship, rather than a, “Hey, tell us what you saw over there,” approach.
In the 1950s, it was not uncommon for returning reporters to be met at the ship by CIA officers. “There would be these guys from the CIA flashing ID cards and looking like they belonged at the Yale Club,” said Hugh Morrow, a former Saturday Evening Post correspondent who is now press secretary to former vice‑president Nelson Rockefeller. “It got to be so routine that you felt a little miffed if you weren’t asked.”
In many ways, the journalist-spy of the latter half of the 20th century was more hero than celebrity in Boorstin’s model. The journalist-spy took risks, was working for the greater good, and was often unpaid. To this day, the CIA has kept the names of the journalists secret. While the practice of using journalists as CIA assets distorts the concept of an objective newsroom, it is understandable why the model was in place and not debatable it produced value to the U.S. without generating fame and fortune for the journalist.
Trusting the Media is not advisable when making a Tectonic Decision.
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