By the early 1950s, Wisner had implemented his plan and owned respected members of the New York Times, Newsweek, CBS and other communications vehicles, plus stringers, four to six hundred in all, according to a former CIA analyst. By 1953 the CIA, through Wisner and Graham, had a major influence over 25 major newspapers and wire agencies... Other former members of the OSS such as Arthur Schlesinger worked closely with this group. To make Operation Mockingbird work effectively, Wisner realized that he could not rely only on journalists and publishers like Arthur Hays Sulzberger of the New York Times, who shared the Georgetown crowd view of the world. He therefore set out to recruit conservatives like William Paley (CBS), C. D. Jackson and Henry Luce (of Time and Life magazines). According to Alex Constantine (Mockingbird: The Subversion of the Free Press by the CIA), in the 1950s, "Some 3,000 salaried and contract CIA employees were eventually engaged in propaganda efforts." One of the most important journalists under the control of Operation Mockingbird was Joseph Alsop, whose articles appeared in over three hundred different newspapers. Other journalists willing to promote the views of the Central Intelligence Agency included Stewart Alsop (New York Herald Tribune), Ben Bradlee (Newsweek), James Reston (New York Times), Walter Pincus (Washington Post), Herb Gold (Miami News) and Charles Bartlett (Chattanooga Times).
Posted on: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 10:58:58 +0000
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