The CIA and the Media

Updated: April 2024
Published: June 2016

High-quality documentaries and investigations on CIA media influence.

Introduction: John Stockwell on CIA media manipulation

CIA whistleblower John Stockwell on CIA media manipulation (3 min., source: 1983 interview)

Documentaries

Short

• Operation Mockingbird (William Colby, 3 minutes, 1975)
• The CIA and Fake News (Channel 4, 12 minutes, 1985)
• The PROMIS Affair (Current Affairs, 20 min., 1993; more)
• CIA Whistleblowers Speak Out (Otis Group, 45 min., 1998)
• How the CIA Buys the News (Udo Ulfkotte, 15 minutes, 2014)
• The Hippies and the CIA (Dave McGowan, 50 minutes, 2015)
• How the CIA influences Hollywood (Al Jazeera, 10 min., 2017)
• The CIA and the News Media (Corbett Report, 40 min., 2022)

Long

• In The Pay of the CIA (CBS News, 60 min., 1967)
• On Company Business (Francovich, 180 min., 1980)
• Operation Gladio (BBC Timewatch, 150 min., 1992)
• Hidden Hands: Cultural Cold War (Channel 4, 60 min., 1995)
• Secrets of the CIA (Sky One Channel, 90 minutes, 2006)
• George Orwell and the CIA (SpyCulture, 60 min., 2015)

Geopolitics & Wars

• The CIA as Organized Crime (Doug Valentine, 120 min., 2017)
• CIA-NATO Arming of Terrorists in Syria (Newsbud, 10 min., 2017)
• How the CIA trained international terrorists in Libya (TAE, 2021)
• The CIA Enters the Cocaine Trade (TAE, 25 minutes, 2021)
• The War on Democracy (John Pilger, 90 minutes, 2007)

American Journalists

• Tucker Carlson: A Company Man? (Chaddington, 20 min., 2021)
• That Time a Military Psyop Unit Worked at CNN (TSM, 10 min., 2017)
• CNN’s Anderson Cooper Confronted (WAC, 2 minutes, 2015)
• Noam Chomsky and the Gatekeepers of the Left (Zwicker, 2007)
• Alex Jones: Disinformation Agent (SPR, 25 minutes, 2024)

CIA whistleblower interviews

• Frank Snepp (USC, 16 minutes, 1983)
• Ralph McGehee (USC, 12 minutes, 1983)
• John Stockwell (USC, 15 minutes, 1983)

Full video collection

• CIA – Media – Propaganda (SPR Media Archive)

Articles I (Basics)

• The Pike Papers (Village Voice, 1976; video)
• The CIA and the Media (Carl Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 1977)
• Worldwide Propaganda Network Built by the CIA (NYT, 1977)
• Modern Art Was CIA ‘Weapon’ (Independent, 1995)
• Social Media Is a Tool of the CIA (CBS News, 2011)
• The Victory of ‘Perception Management’ (CN, 2014)
• The CIA and the Media: 50 Facts (Tracy, 2015)
• The CIA and Hollywood (Atlantic, 2016)
• CIA Operation CHAOS (Grunge, 2020)

Articles II (Specifics)

• CNN and Psyops (Counterpunch, 2000; video)
• The CIA’s Mop-Up Man (The Intercept, 2014)
• How the CIA made Google (Insurge, 2015; more)
• Pierre Omidyar and the CIA (Grayzone, 2019)
• The Editor-in-Chief and the CIA (SPR, 2019)
• CNN’s Anderson Cooper and the CIA (GZ, 2020; video)
• The CIA and ‘Progressive’ Media (Defender, 2021)
• The CIA and Facebook (Mint Press News, 2022)
• CBS’s Historical CIA Connection (Feldman, 2023)
• Tucker Carlson: A Company Man? (SPR, 2023; video)

Articles III (More)

• Bill Clinton and the CIA (CAM, 2022)
• Barack Obama and the CIA (CAM, 2021)
• Was Theranos a CIA front? (Allen, 2021)
• A History of CIA Drug Trafficking (ISGP, 2020)
• Wikipedia: A Propaganda Operation? (SPR, 2020)
• The National Endowment for Democracy (SPR, 2019)
• CIA and Encryption: The Crypto AG Scandal (WP, 2020)
• How NSA access was built into Windows (Heise, 1999)
• The CIA and International Banking: BCCI (Newsweek, 1991)
• How the CIA Manufactures History (Victor Marchetti, 1989)
• CIA – Core of the Cancer (David Conde, CAM, 1970/2023)
• How US intelligence hijacked Antifa (Winteroak, 2023)

Books

• Inside the Company: CIA Diary (Philip Agee, 1975; interview)
• Who Paid the Piper? The Cultural Cold War (Frances Saunders, 2000)
• The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America (Hugh Wilford, 2008)
• The CIA as Organized Crime (Douglas Valentine, Clarity Press, 2016)
• Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet (Y. Levine, 2018)
• Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions since WW II (W. Blum, 2022)

Quotes

• “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” CIA Director William Casey, in a meeting with US President Ronald Reagan in February 1981. Quoted by Barbara Honegger, who was present at the meeting. Casey estimated that over 80% of intelligence was based on open public sources like newspapers and magazines; thus, disinforming the Soviets required disinforming the American public. (Source)
• “The CIA is not now nor has it ever been a central intelligence agency. It is the covert action arm of the President’s foreign policy advisers. () Disinformation is a large part of its covert action responsibility, and the American people are the primary target audience of its lies.” Former CIA case officer and whistleblower Ralph McGehee in his 1983 book Deadly Deceits. (Source)

German Resources

Artikel

• Axel Springer und die CIA (The Nation, 1982)

Dokumentationen

• Die Akte BND (Zweiteilige 3Sat-Doku, 2019, 90 Minuten)
• Deckname Gladio: Geheime NATO-Truppen (ZDF, 2015, 45 Min.)
• Gladio – Geheimarmeen in Europa (Arte-Doku, 2010, 90 Min.)
• V-Mann-Land – Spitzel im Staatsauftrag (ARD, 2015, 45 Min.)
• Land unter Kontrolle (3Sat/Foschepoth, 2014, 45 Min.)
• Operation Wunderland (WDR-Doku, 2008, 120 Minuten)
• Künstler im Netz der CIA (ARTE-Doku, 2006, 50 Minuten)
• Germany – Made in USA (Phoenix-Doku, 2003, 45 Minuten)
• Schachmatt – Strategie einer Revolution (ARTE, 2003, 60 Min.)
• Die Zerstörung der RAF-Legende (ARD-Brennpunkt, 1992, 45 Min.)

TV-Beiträge

• Transatlantische Medien-Netzwerke (ZDF/Anstalt, 2014, 5 Min.)
• Der BND und der Irak-Krieg (ARD-Beitrag, 2010, 30 Minuten)
• Terror in Deutschland: Die Sauerland-Zelle (ARD, 2008, 10 Min.)
• Berlin La Belle Disco-Anschlag: CIA und Mossad (ZDF, 1998, 15 Min.)
• False Flags: Das Celler Loch war kein Einzelfall (NDR, 1986, 10 Min.)

Vorträge und Interviews

• Der Duale Staat (Dirk Pohlmann, 2018, 120 Minuten)
• Im Spinnennetz der Geheimdienste (Westend, 2017, 30 Min.)
• Buback-Mord: Eine Geheimdienst-Operation? (KenFM, 2017, 120 min.)
• Phantom-Terrorismus (Gerhard Wisnewski, 2015, 100 Min.)
• Gekaufte Journalisten (Dr. Udo Ulfkotte, 2015, 90 Minuten)
• Verdeckte Operationen (Dr. Andreas von Bülow, 2013, 60 Min.)
• Skandale des deutschen Verfassungsschutzes (CCC, 2012, 60 Min.)
• RAF und Gladio: Ex-Terrorist Bommi Baumann (2010, 40 Min.)

Bücher

• Geheimdienst, Politik, Medien (Schmidt-Eenboom, 2004)
• Gekaufte Journalisten (Udo Ulfkotte, Kopp Verlag, 2014)
• Unheimlich zu Diensten (Ekkehardt/Spoo/Agee, 1987)

See also

• The Israel Lobby: Facts and Myths
• The American Empire and Its Media
• The Propaganda Multiplier

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