domingo, 19 de marzo de 2017

The CIA’s 60-Year History of Fake News: How the Deep State Corrupted Many American Writers - Scheer Intelligence - Truthdig

The CIA’s 60-Year History of Fake News: How the Deep State Corrupted Many American Writers - Scheer Intelligence - Truthdig

 

In this week’s episode of “Scheer Intelligence,” Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer interviews Joel Whitney, author and co-founder of Guernica magazine.



Whitney’s new book, “Finks: How the C.I.A. Tricked the World’s Best Writers,”
explores how the CIA influenced acclaimed writers and publications
during the Cold War to produce subtly anti-communist material. During
the interview, Scheer and Whitney discuss these manipulations and how
the CIA controlled major news agencies and respected literary
publications (such as the Paris Review).

 

Their talk comes at a particularly tense time in American politics,
as accusations of fake news and Russian propaganda fly from both sides
of the aisle. But the history detailed in Whitney’s book presents a
valuable lesson for writers hoping to avoid similar manipulations today.



Scheer opens the discussion with the question: “Were they really tricked?”



“It could have been ‘paid,’ it could have been ‘subsidized,’ it could
have been ‘used,’ it could have been ‘collaborated with,’ ” Whitney
responds. “So yeah, it might have been any other verb there besides
‘tricked.’”



The two then delve into the tactics used by the CIA to influence
writers. Whitney notes that the fearful political atmosphere at the time
led to “secrecy being used to preside over and rule over the free
press—which we’re supposed to be the champions of.”



“They drank the Kool-Aid and thought they were saving freedom,” Scheer agrees.



The discussion underscores the need for analysis of Cold War-era
media as a way to avoid propagandized journalism today. Scheer says, “I
look at the current situation, where we don’t even have a good communist
enemy, so we’re inventing Russia as a reborn communist power enemy.”



“I call it superpolitics,” Whitney concludes, “where essentially
there’s something that’s so evil and so frightening that we have to
change how our democratic institutions work.”



Listen to the full interview below. Don’t have time to stream the
full interview? Download it and listen on the go by clicking on the
“arrow” button. You can also read a full transcript of the conversation
below. 

 




  Joel Whitney, author and co-founder of Guernica magazine. (Joel Whitney / Twitter)