Howard Kurtz And The Double Standards Of Journalism

In a letter written by Admiral Stansfield Turner, Director of Central Intelligence Agency dated July 15, 1977, he disclosed a recent discovery of seven boxes of documents related to Project MKULTRA. The CIA tried to cover up the evidence that MKULTRA ever existed they sent Seven boxes to retired records in Washington

Operation Mockingbird’s operatives made their way into several major media outlets and programs even before Dulles was director. “ By this time Operation Mockingbird had a major influence over 25 newspapers and wire agencies” (Spartacus Educational). It wasn't until 1976 that any governmental involvement with the media networks was fully shut down. The CIA paid many famous journalists such as Joseph Alsop. “Alsop is one of more than 400 American journalists who in the past twenty‑five years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to documents on file at CIA headquarters” (Bernstein). In 1976, former president and director of the CIA George HW. Bush announced that no longer would any journalist or form of news media be paid by or have any relations with the CIA. In general, this operation was a complete manipulation of

This paper will discuss how the CIA and/or the American government played a role in the death of investigative journalist, Gary Webb. Whether it is a conspiracy or not many question how the investigative journalist died and why his death was ruled as a suicide. Gary Webb was most known for tracking down corruption and exposing it to millions of Americans. He wrote stories about corruption from county, state, and federal levels, for more than thirty four years. He is most known for writing an article titled "Dark Alliance", which “linked the CIA to the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles during the Iran-Contra scandal. He found that drug dealers were smuggling cocaine into the United States and the CIA was using the money to arm Nicaraguan rebels.” (Webb, G. 1998) Webb is also known for writing his last article, written for the Sacramento News titled "The Killing Game”. The article exposes “the

“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” This statement was made by William Casey, the director of the CIA in 1981. It begs the question: how exactly did the CIA plan to accomplish it’s malicious agenda on such a massive scale? In 1975 Operation Mockingbird was revealed to the public as a result of investigations held by the Select Committee in regards to intelligence activities of the governement. According to the Congress 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.”

Consequently, the political sphere is now being colonised by the media, and politics has begun re-orientating itself to satisfy the logic of media organisations (Meyer, 2002, p. 71). Therefore, the media are active participants in the policymaking process and the ability to stimulate change or maintain the status quo depends on their choice of subject or policy issue and how they frame it. Active investigative reporting attempts to shape policy outcomes, but this does not necessarily mean that it always represents the most successful approach for gaining policy changes (Spitzer, 1993, p. 7). In fact, sometimes passive, straight reporting can have a greater influence on policy choices. When this occurs, media independence is largely bypassed, as the news generated depends solely on the information released (as public relations material) from legitimate news sources. For example, in the United States, White House staff routinely make ‘leaks’ - expressively to influence policy decisions (Davis, 1992, p. 143; Robinson, 2001, p. 948). Robinson noted that journalists regard “leaks… as indispensable to their work” and that they are aware of their use by officials in return for scoops (2001, p. 949).

After reading Bernard Goldberg’s Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, I could recognize the medias divide and opinion when reporting the news. Growing older and more understanding of certain issues and what is going on in the world it has been easier for me to acknowledge this bias and opinion of news reporters when watching the news. Being more in the middle of the right and left wing I can see how the media inputs its views that are not objective or twists stories to make it politically correct.

“… to gather news it is often necessary to agree either not to identify the source of information published or to publish only part of the facts revealed, or both; that if the reporter is nevertheless forced to reveal these confidences to a grand jury, the source so identified and other confidential sources of other reporters will be measurably deterred from furnishing publishable information, all to the detriment of the free flow of information, protected by the first amendment.” (3)

It was perplexing time for The New York Times; a chapter, in their long-run, of fabrications that are now consider fabulists and egregious plagiarism. Hard News by Seth Mnookin, recounts the time a narcissistic and pedantic executive editor, named Howell Raines took took charged of the steering-wheel of one of the most reliable and prominent newspapers in the nation. It is described how Raines and other high-profiled and important figures for the paper, such as managing editor Gerald M. Boyd, dealt with the Jayson Blair’s scandal. The Jayson Blair scandal is about the terrible repercussions when plagiarism and fabulism is committed by a reporter. It not only tarnishes the reporter’s reputation but the newspaper’s transparency as a whole. I

The 1987 film Broadcast News focuses on the inner workings of a broadcast news department as it shows various friendship and romantic relationships within the workplace. By showing the personal lives as well as professional performances of broadcast reporters in this fictional drama, the film delves into a few key ethical dilemmas. The main characters are Jane Craig, a producer, Aaron Altman, a broadcast reporter, and Tom Grunick, a newcomer to the news reporting profession. Perhaps one of the ethical issue most pivotal to the plot is when Tom decides to stage a shot of him crying in order to splice it in as a reaction to an emotional story told by one of his interviewees in a story he was running about “date rape”. Although doing so compromises

details to the press during the height of the Watergate scandal, especially to Washington Post’s

media. In fact, most either scoffed or ignored the beatnik poet, Allen Ginsberg, who openly claimed in Time Magazine, February 9, 1959, that the CIA was involved in drug smuggling. He later went into greater detail with his poem “CIA Dope Calypso.” In fact, Ginsberg provided the University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, Alfred W. McCoy, with unpublished documents for his research into the CIA’s involvement with the drug trade. McCoy published The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia in 1972. It was a first of its kind book that thoroughly detailed the CIA’s role in drug smuggling. There had been various news reports which subtly touched upon this issue, but McCoy’s work was the first to connect the dots in such a thoroughly well-documented manner. The results of McCoy’s efforts were rewarded with these: his publisher was threatened with a national security lawsuit, McCoy’s phone was tapped, his taxes audited, and his sources intimidated. Rodney Campbell published The Luciano Project: The Secret Wartime Collaboration of the Mafia and the U.S. Navy in 1977 and like McCoy’s book it was essentially censored by the major media

The incident was not immediately recognized by the media until two reports who worked for the Washington Post by the names of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward suspected the story was much deeper than anticipated. While in the middle of their research they discovered several facets that

The New York Times includes important sources thato help the reader feel more secure about the information given. The type of propaganda that the journalists Mark Landler and Jonathan Weisman often used thewas Testimonial device. The New York Times’ quotes in the article were by people who are well- known by the populace. A quote stated by someone who is well recognized generally helps the reader believe what is being said versus a quote by a person who is not well recognized. This is why Landler and Weisman decided to include President Obama and Secretary of¬ State John Kerry in for quotes in their article. By using these individuals, it also links the story and helps verify the information that was given to the targeted audience. End The Lie’s article had numerous quotes, but some were by recognizable people and others were anonymous. Having an anonymous source in an article is skeptical because anyone could have said it, and that person may not know much about the Russian proposal or the any other diplomatic path that is trying to be focusedsolutions. Also, on or the journalist could have easily added their own opinion by quoting themselves and hiding behind an anonymous source.

Today it seems almost impossible to get a straightforward answer on any major topic from the media. All sources of media have a specific audience that they are intending to hear or view the information that they have prepared, therefore they will cut bits and pieces out so that only the message they are trying to get across will be received. So indeed there is a media bias, and yes it more often than not slants towards the liberal view point, as many reporters and journalists have liberal views themselves.

Nowadays journalists have the responsibility to report facts as accurately, objectively, and disinterestedly as is humanly possible. ‘’The, honest, self-disciplined, well-trained reporter seeks to be a propagandist for nothing but the truth’’ (Casey, 1944b).