Public radio compromised by government money. Wanting more news coverage from what they perceive as a non-threatening, if not friendly media outlet, Jefferson County Commissioners gave $10,000 to KPTZ to hire a producer/reporter to cover county business. You read that right, politicians bought themselves a reporter to write about the things they do.
KPTZ can no longer be considered an independent news source. It was never an unbiased, objective news source. It definitely has its left-ward tilt, and that’s okay. There is no such thing anywhere as a totally unbiased news source. But now KPTZ is not only biased, it is also dependent on money from the very government it covers in its news broadcasts.
Commissioner Heidi Eisenhour started the process of compromising KPTZ’s integrity. She approached KPTZ to persuade them to provide more news coverage of what commissioners were doing. As she explained at the February 28, 2022, Board of County Commissioners meeting, she wanted KPTZ to do more to get the word out about “a lot of things going on on behalf of the community by the county right now.” She wanted them to do what she called “county works spotlights.”
KPTZ was ready to take county money to hire a producer/reporter. Their own fundraising was not going that well. Government money would fill the hole in their budget.
On February 28, 2022, as an item on their consent agenda, the commissioners approved a $10,000 gift of taxpayer money to KPTZ.
Placing the grant’s approval on the consent agenda meant it was not an item up for discussion or debate. Despite a public comment preceding the consent agenda expressing concerns that this was a “gift of public funds” to a media outlet, the grant was given an automatic pass as one of fourteen perfunctory items “enacted in one motion.”
Imagine if Donald Trump had given thousands of dollars to Right Side Broadcasting to hire a reporter to cover what he was doing “on behalf” of the American people. Politicians buying journalists is politicians buying journalists is politicians buying journalists. And journalists taking money from the government and politicians they cover is unethical. Period.
The wording of the grant does not explicitly require KPTZ to cover anything the commissioners do. But that is being disingenuous. The expressed intent of the commissioners during their public meeting, echoed by the county manager, is for KPTZ to hire a reporter to cover the stuff they do. They now have someone on KPTZ’s payroll. There is no longer any boundary between KPTZ’s local news and county government.
This article is difficult for me to write. I appreciate KPTZ’s musical and community events programming. But they want to be a lot more. They want to be a news station. That subjects them to the same scrutiny and standards as journalists who write and broadcast reports about government, politics and public affairs. KPTZ General Manager Kate Ingram, who sees no problem at all with taking government money, says the station wants to do “high quality journalism” and this money will help them do that. “High quality journalism” requires high quality ethics. You can have your viewpoint and push it as hard as you want. But if you’re being paid by the people you’re covering you’re just being corrupt. Instead of being a journalist, you’re a shill.
KPTZ is Not Unbiased.
The resolution giving ten grand to the radio station stated:
“The Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners values an electorate informed by unbiased news sources, of which KPTZ is one. Their expanded news coverage will help inform our citizens and residents about the work the county is doing on their behalf.”
Politicians first declare which media is unbiased, then grace their “unbiased” journalists with public largesse. Let’s unpack that.
Unbiased? Immediately before its local news casts, KPTZ broadcasts Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! That program is decidedly, unapologetically left wing. Several organizations that rate media bias, such as allsides.com, also place the “left wing” label on the outlet’s reporting. But to its credit, unlike KPTZ, Democracy Now! does not accept any corporate or government funding. It is openly biased, and proudly independent.
Several years ago, Scott Hogenson, who was then a contributor to the Port Townsend Free Press and who has an extensive career in journalism, from being a university professor to serving on an NPR board to co-founding CNSnews, approached KPTZ to see if they were interested in programming that would add diversity to the left wing viewpoints they broadcast. He was informed the station was not interested.
The “unbiased” KPTZ has repeatedly shown its bias in covering local events, such as the arrest last year of Rachelle Merle for protesting Governor Inslee’s masking mandate, and the Back the Blue motorcade in August 2020. Their news reporter described that event as “polarizing.” The same label was not applied to the blockades of Water Street and Center Road by anti-law enforcement protestors doing the “Hands up, don’t shoot!” antic (never mind this never happened in the Michael Brown case, as the grand jury testimony of mostly Black witnesses revealed).
“We’re not here to foment controversy,” KPTZ General Manager Kate Ingram told me in a telephone interview. They’re just out, she said, “to tell people what is going on, not to comment or be editorial.”
That is demonstrably false. KPTZ regularly “foments controversy” to further progressive, left-wing objectives. Take, for example, it’s shameful, highly controversial broadcast, “The Reckoning,” from July 2020. This program gave airtime to people to throw wild, racist accusations against our local law enforcement, which has never had a single case of racially motivated misconduct. A man who had been facing charges for trying to break into a house (with the owner on the other side of a glass door and holding a gun) and who had a considerable record of other encounters with police due to his substance abuse, was given use of KPTZ’s airwaves to viciously and falsely attack law enforcement.
As I wrote on August 3, 2020 in covering this detestable, unjustified smear job on our local law enforcement, “The moderators were far from impartial. One of them, KPTZ radio show host Paul Rice, has encouraged activists to pursue and harass a local law enforcement family and in the past has himself attempted to injure the reputation of at least one other law enforcement official. This program was created and sold as a kind of set-up of our Sheriff.”
How could this program have gotten aired? Perhaps because one of those biased moderators, the person who arranged the confrontation, was Kate Dean, one of the Jefferson County Commissioners who later approved giving KPTZ ten grand. KPTZ gave its airwaves to a politician wishing to push her ideological agenda on the station’s listeners.
Other KPTZ programming has also fed into a left-wing narrative and at times sought to energize and rally the troops for local protests. It happens so often it is a regular feature of KPTZ programming. And, of course, there is the totally noncontroversial daily Democracy Now! show.
Just one more example: In a December 9, 2021 news broadcast the KPTZ reporter described wins by climate activists as “encouraging” and pondered, “what might be the results of another lost decade on climate action in this region?” This is not unbiased reporting. It is cheerleading.
Such programming is not improper. KPTZ can choose sides in this community, which it has done for years. But KPTZ is not unbiased. That’s okay. Just don’t lie about it.
Sycophants or Journalists?
KPTZ’s other bias — being a team player with the local political establishment and government leaders — shows in what they do not cover in their news reports.
In democracies, a free press, including radio and television journalism, is expected to maintain an “adversarial” relationship with government, and serve as a watchdog, a deterrent against corruption, waste, abuse of power and incompetence. That is why we have protections for the press written into our constitution. The Fourth Branch of government is supposed to be a counterweight to government, not one of the gang.
I asked KPTZ General Manager Kate Ingram if KPTZ has ever engaged in any critical reporting of local government. Has it ever performed this important, foundational function of journalism? That’s when I got the answer about them just “telling people what’s going on” and not engaging in any sort of editorial commenting.
Opinion can be expressed in what reporters say (and opinion regularly enters the reporting on KPTZ). It is also expressed in what they cover, and avoid covering. I think it is a fair statement that KPTZ never reports on anything that causes difficulties for the local political establishment or challenges the ideological monoculture of Port Townsend. I cannot recall a single story where they have called out any of our local officials for their failures or sought to hold them accountable for decisions that have caused problems in our community.
For instance, did they cover local governments’ failures, negligence and indifference to human suffering in permitting the chaos and tragedy of the homeless encampment and open-air drug market at the Fairgrounds for over a year? Have they ever covered the abject failure of the Cherry Street Project, Port Townsend’s largest public housing project? Have they covered the drug overdoses and suicides among the county’s growing addicted population? Have they covered any story of local government waste, incompetence or corruption? (The answer to these questions is uniformly in the negative.)
The county commissioners just raised commissioners’ salaries to over $100,000 (plus benefits and other freebees).* That puts their income at twice the median income for a family of four in Jefferson County. Few people in this county have seen their incomes rise as fast as the compensation packages the commissioners enjoy. On the very same day commissioners feathered their own nest, they also (again) raised taxes. Did KPTZ mention this even in passing in its local news coverage? Nope. In light of KPTZ now taking money from these same politicians, one is entitled to ask: Were they then in discussion to receive a gift of county funds? Were they hoping to get county money? Is that why they avoid news that could stir up criticism of the commissioners? What other stories has KPTZ avoided broadcasting so as not to jeopardize its chances of getting county money, or to maintain friendly relations with local leaders? What stories will it avoid reporting in the future out of gratitude for the large gift of public funds, or in the hope more public money could be coming their way?
Biased Is Okay. Unethical Is Not.
Unless KPTZ never again reports on anything involving county government, it is engaging in unethical behavior. As I mentioned above, to their credit Democracy Now! refuses to accept government money because it will compromise the integrity of their reporting, either directly or indirectly, or by way of creating both an actual and apparent conflict of interest.
The folks behind Port Townsend Free Press joked about requesting our own $10,000 grant of county funds to hire a reporter to cover county government. We could guarantee satisfying Commissioner Eisenhour’s wish for more news reporting on the actions of county government. We were only joking, because taking money from the government and politicians we write about is straight-up unethical.
The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics states that a journalist’s duty to act independently is one of the four basic principles of ethical journalism. To act ethically a journalist should “Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived” and “Refuse gifts, favors…and special treatment…that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.”
Taking money from someone you are going to cover is unethical. What KPTZ is doing is unethical. As for the county giving KPTZ a gift of money, it may be illegal.
Illegal Gift of Public Funds to a Private Entity?
The $10,000 “grant” is an outright gift of public funds to a private entity that does not serve a fundamental purpose of government. To the contrary, it is corrosive of the independence of the press, which is a fundamental value of our society.
There is no explicit quid pro quo stated in the “grant.” Indeed, it was described during the Commissioner’s meeting as a “no strings attached” grant, but in the next breath, they talked about how this would get them more news coverage. In terms of what was actually written into the grant, the only clear limitation on how the money is spent is that it must be spent on paying a “producer/reporter.”
Commissioner Dean described this as “capacity building.” Under her approach, the county could subsidize any media the commissioners liked or considered “unbiased” because it did not cause them any difficulties. They could give more and more money to local media they liked, every year. Why, this could spread to other small counties, allowing politicians to use public funds to prop up newspapers and radio stations they like, and withhold subsidies from journalists who cause them headaches — a monetary carrot and stick approach to dealing with journalists.
The Washington State Constitution should stand in the way. Article 8, Section 7, in short, prohibits any local government from bestowing a gift on a private party. Washington courts have developed a two-part test to ascertain whether a transfer of public funds to a private party is an illegal gift. First, are the funds being expended to carry out a fundamental government purpose? If the answer is no, the gift is illegal. But, if the answer is not clearly in the negative, courts then ask whether the governmental entity had a “donative intent” or whether it was receiving an adequate return for the transfer.
Compromising the independence of the media: Is that a fundamental governmental purpose? I recognize that is a loaded question, but it is precisely what is accomplished by the county paying for a KPTZ reporter. The commissioners’ action is directly contrary to the concept of an independent press–it makes the press dependent on government. This, in turn, undermines the intent in both the Washington and United States Constitutions behind freedom of the press.
The county resolution authorizing the grant makes an attempt to meet the “fundamental governmental purpose” standard, but falls short. The resolution states that KPTZ was already in the process of raising funds to expand its coverage “of all things Jefferson County,” but needed help. “The Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners values an electorate informed by unbiased news sources, of which KPTZ is one. Their expanded news coverage will help inform our citizens and residents about the work the county is doing on their behalf.”
Is promoting a certain slant of news coverage a “fundamental purpose of government?” The Commissioners value an electorate informed by news sources they consider “unbiased,” of which there is really not a single example in broadcast or print news. Maybe they value an electorate that does not get news from news sources that might look at their actions with a bias against governmental corruption, waste, abuse and incompetence. Maybe they only want an electorate lulled into complacency by indifferent and pollyannish reporting.
Their statement also suggests the kind of spin they want to see in the reporting they will subsidize: they want the stories written to tell citizens about the work the county is doing “on their behalf,” implying positive coverage for the actions of county government. Information about what county government is doing that may not be in taxpayers’ best interests — wasting money, feathering their own nest, pursuing policies that hurt the working poor, raising taxes, making it hard to do business in Jefferson County — is not what the commissioners want reported.
Is giving money to a radio station in the hope of favorable news coverage a fundamental purpose of government? To ask that question is to answer it.
Even if the inquiry gets past the first test, it fails the second: the intent of the commissioners is donative only. The county gets no direct benefit from giving a “no strings attached” grant to KPTZ. There is no “scope of work” except hiring a reporter. That grant does not require the reporter to do anything. It is not a violation of the scope of work for KPTZ to hire a reporter who, for ten grand, broadcasts only a single story on the sexual behavior of the sea otters under the city’s piers. KPTZ needed a “no strings attached” statement (however disingenuous) to avoid endangering its FCC license, which prohibits it from accepting money in exchange for broadcasting specified content. Sure, the money was given to buy news coverage of all the “good stuff” the county is doing, but that was only an unwritten understanding. There is nothing enforceable in the language of the scope of work by which the county can demand any kind of value in return for the money it gave away. On its face, hoist on their own petard, the grant to KPTZ appears to be an illegal gift to a private entity.
This issue is so potentially damaging to the independence of media, and so unethical, I will be filing complaints with the State Attorney General and State Auditor to examine whether this “grant” is an illegal gift of public funds. This action by commissioners is also damaging to our democracy. The corrective action for that is up to voters.
Advancing Left-Wing Fascism
Fascism couples government and the ruling party with businesses, industry and institutions, particularly the press and broadcast media. It seeks to control people’s beliefs, using government or ruling party controlled media to push out stories to agitate or placate the populace, shape their beliefs and motivate them to act the way the ruling clique wants them to act. Fascism always seeks to control speech and expression and suppress, exclude or marginalize dissent and contrary information. The goal post is conformity of thought and behavior. Orwell’s Ministry of Truth is the ultimate target.
Fascism was always a left-wing ideology, borne of socialist manifestos. Mussolini used the phrase to describe a society where everything — education, religion, media, business, industry, science — were bundled and dominated by the ruling party. He was a socialist. Lenin, another left-wing fascist, was a communist. The Nazi platform was always socialist; they even used the word in their name.
You can argue about this take on left wing fascism. I’m not sure how much it matters whether the fascism is “left” or “right.” What is not arguable is that our local radio station is now an organ of the left-wing ruling party. The news coverage of that station is dependent on government funding. It has received funds because it is viewed as a friendly media outlet by those in control of government. Those political leaders have declared it “unbiased” because it has abandoned the fundamental role of media in a democratic society, that of being an adversary to government in order to serve as a watchdog against corruption, waste, abuse and incompetence. KPTZ willingly allows itself to be used to reinforce government’s efforts to influence and control the population and obtain compliance with the ruling party’s goals and policies.
KPTZ is not “community” radio. It is government and ruling clique radio. Its ready acceptance of government money only confirms the conclusion many of us, sadly, had already reached.
*The commissioners unanimously approved pay increases for all county elected officials beginning in 2022, with commisioner increases delayed until their next election as required by the Washington State Constitution. Commissioners were paid $93,847 plus benefits as of their meeting vote on December 6, 2021. Their salary was automatically tied to 47% of the $199,676 paid to superior court judges, but since that rises to $203,169 in July, commissioners will automatically receive a proportionate increase to $95,429. Because commissioners voted to increase their percentage to 50.78%, their salary will further rise to $103,169 with the 2022 election for the council position currently held by Greg Brotherton, and then for the other positions when they are up for election. The original version of this article incorrectly described the timing of the raise in commissioners’ salaries.
Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our “About” page for more information.
Jim
Best of luck with your “…filing complaints with the State Attorney General and State Auditor to examine whether this “grant” is an illegal gift of public funds.”
You may not like the answers you get, but it is certainly worth asking the question.
Please keep us informed.
Fascism is exactly what it is, and it’s not limited to Jefferson County. Look at the merge between government and media– Facebook, Twitter, Google– all censoring material that is not favorable to the Democrats. Look at the corporations mandating vaccines, where government can’t. And government rewards them with things like Section 230 which gives them special privileges, writes laws favorable to the corporations, or gives them special immunity against medical malfeasance from their Covid vaccines and withholding efficacious medications from us. Welcome to the New World Order.
Just finished paying my county taxes and now I know where our hard earned money is going. It is for paying the $100,000 plus pay checks to our commissioners and also for them to subsidize our local radio station so they can then justify their exorbitant salaries. First the commissioners separate our community into vaxxed and unvaxxed, then, without any scientific proof, discriminate where and who can eat or drink in our private restaurants and bars. Vote all of them out except they now have the Leader and KPTZ in their pockets.
In attorney Jeff Childers’ blogpost today, he highlights an Ontario court ruling from last week. In this order, the Judge made the following statement:
“And is “misinformation” even a real word? Or has it become a crass, self-serving tool to pre-empt scrutiny and discredit your opponent? To de-legitimize questions and strategically avoid giving answers. Blanket denials are almost never acceptable in our adversarial system. Each party always has the onus to prove their case and yet “misinformation” has crept into the court lexicon. A childish – but sinister – way of saying “You’re so wrong, I don’t even have to explain why you’re wrong.”
“You’re so wrong, I don’t even have to explain why you’re wrong.”
This is the demonstrated mindset of both Brotherton and Dean. I attribute Eisenhour’s enthusiasm for buying a reporter to naiveté—for now.
For the last two years that I’ve been listening to BOCC meetings, Brotherton has made crystal clear that he is utterly clueless, despite attempts at educating him otherwise, about the purpose of the fourth estate. He simply cannot comprehend it. Dean, on the other hand, decries the motives of those who disagree with her as ‘partisan, ideological.’ They both describe any and all contravention to their preferred narratives ‘dis/misinformation.’
Thank you for this article, Jim. May we arrive at quite a different ‘reckoning’ in the not-too-distant future.
Thank you for exposing the new official KPTZ – Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners relationship and especially for connecting it to a totalitarian ideology. While everyone is debating terms like communism and fascism, our entire region has become an occupied territory of the Great Reset totalitarians. They control all government entities. They are supported by the legacy media and the majority of registered voters.
“The essence of totalitarianism — regardless of which costumes and ideology it wears — is a desire to completely control society, every aspect of society, every individual behavior and thought. Every totalitarian system, whether an entire nation, a tiny cult, or any other form of social body, evolves toward this unachievable goal … the total ideological transformation and control of every single element of society (or whatever type of social body it comprises). This fanatical pursuit of total control, absolute ideological uniformity, and the elimination of all dissent, is what makes totalitarianism totalitarianism.” – CJ Hopkins from consentfactory.org/2021/10/12/the-great-new-normal-purge
Annette Huenke, MJ Heins– excellent and impressive comments that help restore my faith in humanity. I am happy to see like-minded thinkers.
We ALL must Remember in November, and vote the miscreants out. The left organizes better than we do; that’s got to change.
Jim — once again, great journalism & commentary at PTFP. Thanks!
Much might be added to an already stellar conversation, but perhaps a few observations straight from the horse’s mouth would suffice. History consistently demonstrates not much really changes, and as such there’s little need to vary “successful” strategies.
Joseph Goebbels, ace Nazi propagandist:
“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.”
“It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.”
“If you repeat a lie often enough it becomes accepted as truth.”
“The English follow the principle that when one lies, it should be a big lie, and one should stick to it.”
“Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.”
And a couple from more balanced minds —
Mark Twain — “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
Gandhi — “Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But, conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right”.
Thanks Jim for asking, “Is it right?”
There’s always the courts. I had to sue the county to stop them from censoring comments they didn’t like in the public forum of their official FB page. We won that one. This would not be a complicated lawsuit. Jim Scarantino
This stinks! Government should not be funding propaganda.
I think we’re sitting on a ticking time bomb. Hopefully, it will be a dud or people are going to get hurt.
Thank you, Jim and PTFP for bringing these local issues to light and keeping that light on while the spiders scuttle out from dark corners. This and Annette’s recent story/update on the disastrous and costly vaccine mandates at the PUD – more transparency and intelligence brought to vital community issues in one week than The Leader can manage in a ye… scratch that… ever.
Thank you for taking this fight to our courts. Please let us know how we can help you. You don’t have to carry this alone.
Jim- Thanks for your intellect and actual use of it. What you point out can have names and labels, the simple take is that over and over our neighbors betray us after gaining position and or cash. Everyone they know within their system doing so is “nice”. Smiling. Its comfortable and easy. They seem unable to understand that in systems above them others will as easily betray them and their children. An ever-expanding universe of smiling comfortable folk. We see the world they are leaving their children less and less comfortable. Only so much room at the top.
Forgive me for repeating this story. It relates to fascism. You combine two things in your piece that trigger me. You mention Paul Rice who has a ‘”show” on KPTZ and who works for past 3-time appointed mayor Sandoval at her Windermere office. Paul ran for Council, lost, and is or was on the dormant planning commission. Windermere is a sponsor of KPTZ. Rice and Sandoval were key players in the Cherry Street mess. You won’t see that covered on KPTZ. I do hear some good tunes at times.
During the election a few years ago, I was commenting regularly in the (MIS) Leader regarding the failures of Appointed Mayor Stinson, mostly about not following laws and municipal codes that damaged business and all visitors, roads, 1.2-million-dollar visitor center “park”, etc. I supported a candidate who was running against her and took out ads in the Leader. All I had to do was show Stinson’s record. No one ever came back with a reply.
Except…………..
At one point Paul Rice of Windermere told me in comments to “Quickly shut up”. He claimed I was harming Stinson’s opponent. I do know Stinson’s opponent did not feel “harmed”. So, I did a cartoon with Paul Rice as a Chihuahua attack dog working for Stinson and Sandoval, telling me to “quickly shut up” and Sandoval telling him that “facts” must not be spoken of. I sent it only to key folks in City Government, in an effort to show the PT brand of fascism and censorship.
Glad to send it to anyone. email me at parking20@forestgems.com
The Chihuahua attack dog got hold of it (how?) and posted it on Facebook with the words “Everyone knows to stay away from Forest Gems,” my business. Others including a current council member chimed in. Someone came to my business and disrupted things as customers were in a couple of times during this time period. Obviously, Paul was not fired for attacking a fellow business directly due to political views different than his and his employer.
KPTZ was influenced years ago. Windermere is not government though, right? There will be no hard-hitting Cherry Street stories or any others on the Paul Rice show. Or anywhere on KPTZ.
In a system I participated in as representative and antagonist years ago we called it the many headed medusa. Cut one off, another one grows. Stinson did lose the election. Sandoval was appointed Mayor again for the third time. Now you have Appointed Mayor Attorney Faber. New head. Same body.
Welcome to Port Townsend. Everyone is so nice, you don’t need Dramamine, the boat is not allowed to rock. It’s not Fascism or censorship. If you are on the inside and smiling.
Thanks again Jim. Just some history for those that can connect dots. There are so many.
Timely post from Dr. Robert Malone, “Advocacy Journalism is Propaganda”: https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/advocacy-journalism-is-propaganda?s=r
The oxymoron “Advocacy Journalism” is the new euphemism for propaganda, a strategy openly promoted by the ruling elites now. “Welcome to 21st century media warfare. Waged by our government on you.”
“This is allowing a non-profit governmental organization (at best), a corporation or government (at worst) to control the content of a newspaper or magazine through secret hand-shakes, grants and contracts. It is allowing psy-ops operations a front row seat into influencing the minds of the reader. This is a whole other ball-game, and it needs to stop or at the very least, be called out and recognized for what it is: corporate and state-sponsored propaganda.”
Nothing new, as Jon Rappoport and others relate:
“The CIA infiltrated the media.” That statement wore out its welcome decades ago. The media ARE the CIA.”
“I mention this because we’re not getting war news, we’re getting CIA news.”
https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2022/03/02/real-war-vs-phony-war-turn-on-the-news-bubble-machine/
William Casey, CIA Director 1981-1987, famously quipped —
“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”
http://truthstreammedia.com/2015/01/13/cia-flashback-well-know-our-disinformation-program-is-complete-when-everything-the-american-public-believes-is-false/
“I am the source for this quote, which was indeed said by CIA Director William Casey at an early February 1981 meeting of the newly elected President Reagan with his new cabinet secretaries to report to him on what they had learned about their agencies in the first couple of weeks of the administration. The meeting was in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, not far from the Cabinet Room. I was present at the meeting as Assistant to the chief domestic policy adviser to the President. Casey first told Reagan that he had been astonished to discover that over 80 percent of the ‘intelligence’ that the analysis side of the CIA produced was based on open public sources like newspapers and magazines. As he did to all the other secretaries of their departments and agencies, Reagan asked what he saw as his goal as director for the CIA, to which he replied with this quote, which I recorded in my notes of the meeting as he said it. Shortly thereafter I told Senior White House correspondent Sarah McClendon, who was a close friend and colleague, who in turn made it public.”
— Barbara Honegger
Mockingbird, indeed:
https://medium.com/@LaurenvonB/operation-mockingbird-the-cias-history-of-media-manipulation-history-fe10cc2f3f9b
https://dannyboylimerick.wordpress.com/2021/04/30/operation-mockingbird-the-disinformation-program/
Perhaps the last question would be, at the level of corp-gov (aka fascism), and ALL its institutions & minions — what isn’t a lie, a mockery?
Governments lie, governments kill — ask any Indian.
Trust? — not a chance.
Alby, that’s an interesting story. I remember some people had told me that the CIA was responsible for the Kennedy murders as they wanted to disband the CIA. Larry Fliint and a comedian were really pounding it in Flint’s magazine Husler which I followed while in the Army. I think that Flint was shot by someone who had a gripe with him helped by the CIA. When he wasn’t killed, he quickly got off the subject. I personally trust the CIA as far as I can throw them.
Les — we share a similar time frame, when there were some actual “leaders”, as well many heroes & heroines on the front lines, especially during the civil rights era.
There were also genuine journalists keeping the heat on the PTB — many who were marginalized & worse for their pursuits of truth (see link below).
Some of our greatest heroines & heroes were assassinated during that period — though, when taken all together, taught us much about our world.
Not that much changes, except now the globalist PTB are going for ALL the marbles on their game board.
BUT now it’s never been more obvious what & who the real enemy is. The rudest of awakenings, but there it is.
So be it, whatever it takes.
The history of the CIA, formerly the “OSS”, is the history of lies, deceit & interference. Ditto with the FBI, and all the other alphabets.
I’m with you, Les — not to be trusted.
https://www.trace-evidence.com/dorothy-kilgallen
“After the assassination of President, and her close friend, John Kennedy in November of 1963, Dorothy dedicated her work to uncovering what she believed to have been a massive conspiracy and cover-up. She had a contact in the Warren Commission who leaked information to her, which she in turn published. The FBI began keeping a file on her, and tapping her phone after Dorothy refused to reveal her sources. Dorothy became the only journalist to get a private, one on one interview with Jack Ruby, the man who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald. In the days and weeks leading up to her death, Dorothy told friends she was going to break the case open and she had plans to travel to New Orleans to meet with an informant. Sadly, Dorothy would be found dead in her home just days before this trip, and what information she had gathered would never be revealed as her research files were never found.”
Yes Alby, the whole incident stunk. Anyone who knew anything ended up dead or missing. If I turn up missing you’ll know why.
Crazy, eh?
Heck yah, the way things are going, we’re all about to be disappeared. One can only hope “they” don’t follow us on the other side.
The creeps are having themselves one helluva wet dream.
Great article! However, I think your treatment of Democracy Now as “independent” is overly generous. While I realize that you were pointing out the OVERT government funding of KPTZ, Democracy Now receives much of its funding through several foundations that are essentially fronts for the CIA and corporate interests.
Thank you for reporting this. Wow. How can they defend this obvious abuse of power. The leftists, who I once was before the VID hit, have no self awareness. They think their way is right and if they bend the laws a bit, that is ok because they are so virtuous. I hope the inquiry into legalities becomes a real barrier to re election, at least.