Media

“In the past 15 years, council directors have included Hedley Donovan of Time Inc, Elizabeth Drew of the New Yorker, Philip Geyelin of The Washington Post, Karen Elliott House of the Wall Street Journal and Strobe Talbott of Time magazine.… The editorial page editor, deputy editorial page editor, executive editor, managing editor, foreign editor, national affairs editor, business and financial editor, and various writers as well as Katharine Graham, the paper's principal owner, represent The Washington Post in the council's membership. The executive editor, managing editor and foreign editor of the New York Times are members, along with executives of such other large newspapers as the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, the weekly news-magazines, network television executives and celebrities - Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, and Jim Lehrer, for example - and various columnists, among them Charles Krauthammer, William Buckley, George Will and Jim Hoagland.… They do not merely analyze and interpret foreign policy for the United States; they help make it.” (Columnist Richard Harwood, Ruling Class Journalists, Washington Post, October 30, 1993.)

“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day. I really look with commiseration over the great body of my fellow citizens who, reading newspapers, live and die in the belief, that they have known something of what has been passing in the world in their time.…General facts may indeed be collected from them, such as that Europe is now at war…but no details can be relied on.” (Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Norvell, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, pp. 224-225. June 11, 1807.)

“In March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, ship building and powder interests and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press in the United States.

“These 12 men worked the problems out by selecting 179 newspapers, and then began, by an elimination process, to retain only those necessary for the purpose of controlling the general policy of the daily press throughout the country. They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers. The 25 papers were agreed upon; emissaries were sent to purchase the policy, national and international, of these papers; an agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers.

“This policy also included the suppression of everything in opposition to the wishes of the interests served.” (Congressman Oscar Callaway Congressional Record, vol. 54, pp. 2947-48. February 9, 1917.)

“The Rockefeller Foundation and the Council on Foreign Relations…intend to prevent, if they can, a repetition of what they call in the vernacular “the debunking journalistic campaign following World War I.” Translated into precise English, this means that the Foundation and the Council do not want journalists or any other persons to examine too closely and criticize too freely the official propaganda and official statements relative to “our basic aims and activities” during World War II. In short, they hope that, among other things, the policies and measures of Franklin D. Roosevelt will escape in the coming years the critical analysis, evaluation and exposition that befell the policies and measures of Woodrow Wilson and the Entente Allies after World War I.” (Charles Beard, former president of the American Historical Association Who's to Write the History of the War?, Saturday Evening Post, p. 172. October 4, 1947.)

“The methods followed by the various groups interested in blacking out the truth about world affairs since 1932 are numerous and ingenious. But, aside from subterranean persecution of individuals, they fall mainly into the following patterns or categories: (1) Excluding scholars suspected of revisionist [meaning opposed to the conspiracy-control led establishment] views from access to public documents which are freely opened to 'court historians', and other apologists for the foreign policy of President Franklin Roosevelt; (2) Intimidating publishers of books and periodicals, so that even those who might wish to publish books and articles setting forth the revisionist point of view, do not dare to do so; (3) Ignoring or obscuring published material which embodies revisionist facts and arguments; and (4) Smearing revisionist authors and their books….

“As a matter of fact, only two small publishing houses in the United States—the Henry Regnery Company and the Devin-Adair Company—have shown any consistent willingness to publish books which frankly aim to tell the truth with respect to the causes and issues of the second World War. Leading members of the two largest publishing houses in the country have told me that, whatever their personal wishes in the circumstances, they would not feel it ethical to endanger their business and the property rights of their stockholders by publishing critical books relative to American foreign policy since 1933. And there is good reason for this hesitancy. The book clubs and the main sales outlets for books are controlled by powerful pressure groups which are opposed to truth on such matters. These outlets not only refuse to market critical books in this field, but also threaten to boycott other books by those publishers who defy their blackout ultimatum.” (Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, pp. 15-16, 18. 1953.)

“There is no such thing as an independent Press in America, if we except that of little country towns.” (New York Times editor John Swinton 1914.)

“The major American news media have ignored what is happening in Afghanistan and they have also ignored Afghans like me who try to tell what is happening. But the smaller newspapers and radios and TV stations have been very cooperative.…

“Every day, hundreds or thousands of my people are killed and the networks and major news media say nothing. But if one person is killed in South Africa, immediately the media start screaming.…

“I have talked to many, many people here in the United States, many of them refugees from Communist countries themselves and they cannot believe the things they see in the major news media. They say that American news media are on the other side. Much of the time, I am forced to believe that they are correct.” (Abdul Shams who was the economic advisor to Afghanistan's President Hfizullah Amin, described the media in relation to the Soviet attacks on his country which slaughtered over one million people and turned millions more into refugees. The Review of the News, 1985.)

“On Sunday afternoon, Sixty Minutes is the most watched network show in the United States.…I have watched the show and I am familiar with the format. Generally speaking, the show is not complete unless someone is nailed to the cross. Also, the program will invariable sneak in a touch of propaganda. You can be sure this propaganda is slanted to the Left.

“When I was advised that Sixty Minutes wanted to interview me, I certainly had misgivings.…

“However, I wanted so much for the American people to understand the realities of our situation in Nicaragua and to know what the administration in Washington was doing to us, that I agreed to do the program. All arrangements were made and Dan Rather was sent down to do the program. That interview I shall always remember.

“Rather tried every conceivable journalistic trick to trip me up on questions. He knew in advance the answers he wanted and come “hell or high water” he was going to find the question to fit his preconceived answer. Well, he never succeeded. From watching the show, one would never know that Dan Rather spend two and on-half hours grilling me. It’s difficult to believe, but Rather condensed that entire time to seven minutes.…

“I didn’t realize what the power of film editing really meant. With that power, Rather cast me in any role he chose. Everything good I said about Nicaragua was deleted. Any reference to Carter’s effort to destroy the government of Nicaragua was deleted. Every reference to the Communist activity and Cuba’s participation was deleted.

“His insistence that there was torture in my government probably disturbed me the most. We would go over the subject and then we would come back to it again. He just wasn’t getting the answers he wanted. Finally he said: “May we visit the security office of the Nicaraguan government?” He had heard that this was a torture chamber and he believed it. I replied: “Yes, Mr. Rather, you may visit those offices and you may take your camera.” Then I added: “You go right now. Take that car and go immediately so that you can’t say I rigged it.” Well, he did go, and he saw where the people worked and talked to many of them. When the show came on the air, he made no mention of the fact that he had personally visited our security offices and was free to film, talk to people, or do anything he wanted to do. He knew in advance how he wanted to portray me and his predetermined plan was followed.

“When Rather left my office, I was convinced he would take me apart. I was right. The show was a disaster. Rather depicted a situation that didn’t exist in Nicaragua. That show did irreparable harm to the government of Nicaragua and to me. Such massive disinformation also does harm to the American people.” (Former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Nicaragua Betrayed, pp. 205-207. July 31, 1985.)

“The man who never looked into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer the truth than he whose mind is filled with half-truths and errors.” (Thomas Jefferson, in the ripeness of his years)

“I myself was to experience how easily on is taken in by a lying and censored press and radio in a totalitarian state… a steady diet over the years of falsifications and distortions made a certain impression on one's mind and often mislet it.” (William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 247-248. 1959.)

“As people get their opinions so largely from the newspapers they read… But the Press is not free, the newspapers are owned by rich men.” (Fabian Socialist George Bernard Shaw, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, p. 64. 1949.)