Even in 1983, the media was just an unwitting wing of Government Agencies
Edward Snowden went looking for videos of former CIA employees that the CIA “sued into silence“. He foundwhat the CIA wanted to hide. Here, CIA officer Frank Snepp describing just how easy it was to get journalists to write exactly the stories they hoped they would write.
All those problems we see in the media today were already well developed 40 years ago. Real journalism is really rare.
On a website for people with a four-second attention span, that’s a lot of folks who stopped to watch a four-minute video from forty year years ago. Real numbers. https://t.co/shyAKE8SJt
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) November 9, 2022
@Snowdon says:
The entire thing is much longer, but *entirely* worth the watch. The government sued Snepp in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled intelligence workers had to submit any statement for censorship, even those unrelated to secrets.
Once an agency becomes good at lying “for the sake of the nation” or to “win the war” it’s only a hop, skip and a jump to lying to the nation to save the nation from itself.
Full 16 minute version below: Frank Snepp discusses his dilemma with the morality of what he did — “propagandizing the American public” — from 8 mins.
Snepp wrote a book, which is when the CIA sued him. In the court case The Supreme Court set an extraordinary precedent curtailing the free speech of public servants — deciding that every public worker in any public office has an obligation to report to the government what they are planning to write and must get approval before publishing it, even if they are not revealing secrets. It’s a life long gag order, even if they signed no secrecy order.