The Implications of Left-Wing Bloggers to the World of Journalism

Right-wing bloggers love authority. They live to repeat slavishly the talking points of the Bush administration, bowing down like a pack of authoritarian cargo cultists before the words and images of the Jeep-in-Chief. Left-wing bloggers, on the other hand, are a notoriously unruly bunch, and they spend much of their energy in a steel-cage death match with corporate media journalists they consider compromised and conscripted by the GOP. It is not a relationship fused with an abundance of mutual affection.

Liberal bloggers consider themselves media watchdogs. The journalists they cover consider them ankle-biting amateurs. But as paper gives way to pixels, the two groups are being forced into ever-closer proximity. This two-way street often scares mainstream journalists accustomed to one-way, we-speak-you-listen communication, and the fractious relationship between traditional journalists and the folks whom New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen calls “the people formerly known as the audience” is becoming the stuff of headlines.

These modern-day I.F. Stones would probably make certain right-wing scams very difficult to pull off today. Take Whitewater…. The press… accepted the fabricated assertions of political operatives with little or no skepticism. Such a hijacking would be impossible now – it’s much harder for the press to accept the whole-sale whoppers of political operatives knowing that a bunch of itchy, trigger-fingered keyboardists are connected via the Internet and willing to sift through enormous amounts of data for documentation with which to counter spin and disinformation.

The bias of the media has lurched horrifically to the right. Mention the word “liberal” to journalists, and watch their eyes bug out and their hair stand on end… It’s understandable that they now feel themselves wedged into a tight spot as they experience liberal online pushback.

But bloggers and their readers are much more than just liberal battering rams. They act as analysts as they help to shape the dominant narratives and sort through ever-accumulating piles of information….. Their narratives increasingly feed back out into corporate news media and help determine the shape of future reporting.

The Media
Journalism is a perfect cover for CIA agents. People talk freely to journalists, and few think suspiciously of a journalist aggressively searching for information. Journalists also have power, influence and clout. Not surprisingly, the CIA began a mission in the late 1940s to recruit American journalists on a wide scale, a mission it dubbed Operation MOCKINGBIRD. The agency wanted these journalists not only to relay any sensitive information they discovered, but also to write anti-communist, pro-capitalist propaganda when needed.

The instigators of MOCKINGBIRD were Frank Wisner, Allan Dulles, Richard Helms and Philip Graham. Graham was the husband of Katherine Graham, today’s publisher of the Washington Post. In fact, it was the Post’s ties to the CIA that allowed it to grow so quickly after the war, both in readership and influence. (8)

MOCKINGBIRD was extraordinarily successful. In no time, the agency had recruited at least 25 media organizations to disseminate CIA propaganda. At least 400 journalists would eventually join the CIA payroll, according to the CIA’s testimony before a stunned Church Committee in 1975. (The committee felt the true number was considerably higher.) The names of those recruited reads like a Who's Who of journalism:

Philip and Katharine Graham (Publishers, Washington Post)
William Paley (President, CBS)
Henry Luce (Publisher, Time and Life magazine)
Arthur Hays Sulzberger (Publisher, N.Y. Times)
Jerry O'Leary (Washington Star)
Hal Hendrix (Pulitzer Prize winner, Miami News)
Barry Bingham Sr., (Louisville Courier-Journal)
James Copley (Copley News Services)
Joseph Harrison (Editor, Christian Science Monitor)
C.D. Jackson (Fortune)
Walter Pincus (Reporter, Washington Post)
ABC
NBC
Associated Press
United Press International
Reuters
Hearst Newspapers
Scripps-Howard
Newsweek magazine
Mutual Broadcasting System
Miami Herald
Old Saturday Evening Post
New York Herald-Tribune
Perhaps no newspaper is more important to the CIA than the Washington Post, one of the nation’s most right-wing dailies. Its location in the nation’s capitol enables the paper to maintain valuable personal contacts with leading intelligence, political and business figures. Unlike other newspapers, the Post operates its own bureaus around the world, rather than relying on AP wire services. Owner Philip Graham was a military intelligence officer in World War II, and later became close friends with CIA figures like Frank Wisner, Allen Dulles, Desmond FitzGerald and Richard Helms. He inherited the Post by marrying Katherine Graham, whose father owned it.

After Philip’s suicide in 1963, Katharine Graham took over the Post. Seduced by her husband’s world of government and espionage, she expanded her newspaper’s relationship with the CIA. In a 1988 speech before CIA officials at Langley, Virginia, she stated:

We live in a dirty and dangerous world. There are some things that the general public does not need to know and shouldn’t. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows.
This quote has since become a classic among CIA critics for its belittlement of democracy and its admission that there is a political agenda behind the Post’s headlines.