Propaganda: As American As Apple Pie On ‘Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know’

On this episode of Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know, hosts Ben Bowlin, Noel Brown, and Matt Frederick talk propaganda. More specifically, they’re talking about propaganda created by the U.S. government for U.S. citizens. For decades, there was a law in place that prevented taxpayer dollars from being used to pipe government-sponsored news to citizens; instead, it’s broadcast only in foreign countries. But seven years ago, that law changed, allowing the U.S. to engage in propaganda efforts to spin public opinion or discredit journalists and officials right here at home. But of course, if you thought the U.S. wasn’t actually perpetrating propaganda that entire time despite the law, you’d be mistaken. Which brings us to Operation Mockingbird.

Operation Mockingbird was an alleged secret campaign conducted by the CIA to influence our media. On its face, its intention was to undermine efforts by the Soviets to blanket U.S. newspapers with pro-Communist articles, but it became more far-reaching than that. The CIA took into its employ several prominent members of the press from respected news outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and even local papers like The Chattanooga Times in order to be able, essentially, to control the narrative. They would use their network to put their preferred spin on any story about to break, to hide stories from the public, and to influence “the bounds of what can be talked about,” Ben says. 

This influence continued for decades, enabling them to control the narrative around the coup in Guatemala and get Dwight D. Eisenhower elected President; they’re even the reason that Senator Joe McCarthy, known for his aggressive attacks on supposed communists in all walks of life, was finally discredited. He went after the CIA, calling it “a sinkhole of communism,” and “they unleashed Mockingbird on him.” But “all things good and evil must come to an end,” Ben tells us, and in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, the operation started to unravel. But there’s no mention of this program in any of the declassified CIA files, so it’s as if the operation never officially existed. And if something doesn’t officially "exist," can it ever officially "end"? The guys think not. Listen to this episode of Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know to find out more about Operation Mockingbird, Radio Sputnik (out of Kansas City), and much more.

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