Caitlin Johnstone

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MSM Promotes Yet Another CIA Press Release As News

The Washington Post, whose sole owner is a CIA contractor, has published yet another anonymously sourced CIA press release disguised as a news report which just so happens to facilitate longstanding CIA foreign policy. In an article titled “Secret CIA assessment: Putin ‘probably directing’ influence operation to denigrate Biden“, WaPo’s virulent neoconservative war pig Josh…

Caitlin Johnstone
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The Washington Post, whose sole owner is a CIA contractor, has published yet another anonymously sourced CIA press release disguised as a news report which just so happens to facilitate longstanding CIA foreign policy.

In an article titled “Secret CIA assessment: Putin ‘probably directing’ influence operation to denigrate Biden“, WaPo’s virulent neoconservative war pig Josh Rogin describes what was told to him by unnamed sources about the contents of a “secret” CIA document which alleges that Vladimir Putin is “probably” overseeing an interference operation in America’s presidential election.

True to form, at no point does WaPo follow standard journalistic protocol and disclose its blatant financial conflict of interest with the CIA when promoting an unproven CIA narrative which happens to serve the consent-manufacturing agendas of the CIA for its new cold war with Russia.

And somehow in our crazy, propaganda-addled society, this is accepted as “news”.

The CIA has had a hard-on for the collapse of the Russian Federation for many years, and preventing the rise of another multipolar world at all cost has been an open agenda of US imperialism since the fall of the Soviet Union. Indeed it is clear that the escalations we’ve been watching unfold against Russia were in fact planned well in advance of 2016, and it is only by propaganda narratives like this one that consent has been manufactured for a new cold war which imperils the life of every organism on this planet.

There is no excuse for a prominent news outlet publishing a CIA press release disguised as news in facilitation of these CIA agendas. It is still more inexcusable to merely publish anonymous assertions about the contents of that CIA press release. It is especially inexcusable to publish anonymous assertions about a CIA press release which merely says that something is “probably” happening, meaning those making the claim don’t even know.

None of this stopped The Washington Post from publishing this propaganda piece on behalf of the CIA. None of it stopped this story from being widely shared by prominent voices on social media and repeated by major news outlets like CNN, The New York Times, and NBC. And none of it stopped all the usual liberal influencers from taking the claims and exaggerating the certainty:

The CIA-to-pundit pipeline, wherein intelligence agencies “leak” information that is picked up by news agencies and then wildly exaggerated by popular influencers, has always been an important part of manufacturing establishment Russia hysteria. We saw it recently when the now completely debunked claim that Russia paid bounties on US troops to Taliban-linked fighters in Afghanistan first surfaced; unverified anonymous intelligence claims were published by mass media news outlets, then by the time it got to spinmeisters like Rachel Maddow it was being treated not as an unconfirmed analysis but as an established fact:

If you’ve ever wondered how rank-and-file members of the public can be so certain of completely unproven intelligence claims, the CIA-to-pundit pipeline is a big part of it. The most influential voices who political partisans actually hear things from are often a few clicks removed from the news report they’re talking about, and by the time it gets to them it’s being waved around like a rock-solid truth when at the beginning it was just presented as a tenuous speculation (the original aforementioned WaPo report appeared on the opinion page).

The CIA has a well-documented history of infiltrating and manipulating the mass media for propaganda purposes, and to this day the largest supplier of leaked information from the Central Intelligence Agency to the news media is the CIA itself. They have a whole process for leaking information to reporters they like (with an internal form that asks whether the information leaked is Accurate, Partially Accurate, or Inaccurate), as was highlighted in a recent court case which found that the CIA can even leak documents to select journalists while refusing to release them to others via Freedom of Information Act requests.

A lying, torturing, propagandizing, drug trafficking, assassinating, coup-staging, warmongering, psychopathic spook agency with an extensive history of deceit and depravity that selectively gives information to news reporters with whom it has a good relationship is never doing so for noble reasons. It is doing so for the same rapacious power-grabbing reasons it does all the other evil things it does.

The way mainstream media has become split along increasingly hostile ideological lines means that all the manipulators need to do to advance a given narrative is set it up to make one side look bad and then share it with a news outlet from the other side. The way media is set up to masturbate people’s confirmation bias instead of report objective facts will then cause the narrative to go viral throughout that partisan faction, regardless of how true or false it might be.

The coming US election and its aftermath is looking like it will be even more insane and hysterical than the last one, and the enmity and outrage it creates will give manipulators every opportunity to slide favorable narratives into the slipstream of people’s hot-headed abandonment of their own critical faculties.

And indeed they are clearly prepared to do exactly that. An ODNI press release last month which was uncritically passed along by the most prominent US media outlets reported that China and Iran are trying to help Biden win the November election while Russia is trying to help Trump. So no matter which way these things go the US intelligence cartel will be able to surf its own consent-manufacturing foreign policy agendas upon the tide of outrage which ensues.

The propaganda machine is only getting louder and more aggressive. We’re being prepped for something.

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44 responses to “MSM Promotes Yet Another CIA Press Release As News”

  1. Brockland A.T. Avatar
    Brockland A.T.

    Well, technically most news content comes from press releases.

    Its just that real journalism used to verify instead of trust blindly.

  2. jim carter Avatar
    jim carter

    The CIA was created by Wall Street who recruited their crony Allen Dulles so they could hide their nefarious acts behind ‘national security.’ Their first coup—to install the Shah— was led by agent Kermit Roosevelt in 1953 so WS oil moguls could seize the nationalized BP oil fields. They, along with the US military, are used as the muscle for WS world domination and are now being used, along with the rest of the national intelligence agencies, the State Department, and other departments, to install the NWO.

    Ref. https://thedailycoin.org/2020/09/17/none-dare-call-it-sedition/.

    Sometimes I feel that Trump is leading the opposition to WS demands. WS took some bad hits in the seven casino construction bankruptcies and they have no love for Trump. They were disappointed Trump was able to obtain money from Russia for overpriced condos and prevent personal bankruptcy of Trump.

    1. davenitup Avatar
      davenitup

      Trump is nothing more than the poop stain he’s always been. Who is pulling his strings…and protecting him from being knocked off by the CIA, etc?

      1. davenitup Avatar
        davenitup

        It’s probably all being directed by the CFR as usual. In which case, Trump in the bad guy role, should grudgingly be acknowledged for his stellar performance.

  3. Wesley Wood Avatar
    Wesley Wood

    ?? confounding…
    In you article ” WaPo’s virulent neoconservative war pig Josh Rogin etc
    –or —
    https://theintercept.com/2020/09/22/as-joe-rogans-platform-grows…
    “What makes all of this more confounding is that Rogan is a fairly basic political liberal on almost every issue:  …” 
    ?? orchestrated…by ??

    1. Thomas Kahler Avatar
      Thomas Kahler

      Josh Rogin is not Joe Rogan.

  4. David Slesinger Avatar
    David Slesinger

    I’ve been a skeptic of Russiagate since Sy Hersh’s audio recording has him certifying his local law enforcement sources had legal access to Marc Rich’s laptop and said Rich gave Hillary’s emails to Wikileaks. In addition, Bill Binney reported that NSA would have had access to evidence Russia stole Hillary’s emails. However, “Killchain” a documentary on HBOMAX says because of corporate rights to prevent theft of their intellectual property and the concomitant secrecy, US elections can be hacked by private hackers, much less whole countries. In addition, they show testimony by a Russian general saying since the US is so much richer, Russia cannot keep up physical weapon wise, but it can afford cyberwar.

  5. Lynn Avatar
    Lynn

    Trying to find a moral ground upon which to defend the thepersonahed of the main stream media, is like trying to make as though poisonous viper snakes act through a high moral devotion to either a god or demon. There is simply nothing there that won’t eventually become valuable composted manure.

  6. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
    Tired and no longer active revolutionary

    The CIA (deep state) continues to orchestrate and increase domestic and international conflict, mistrust and war games until global trade, cooperation and production will be seriously at risk of total collapse. Bought and paid health officials, politicians and news media have created enough fear of death from COVID-19 to intentionally cause irreparable global economic distress and unprecedented debt. Global credit worthiness will start evaporating and confidence in continued payment of interest on loans will justify creditors demanding that debtors transfer ownership of their assets in exchange for debt relief. This means that central banks, which are owned by the world’s super-wealthy globalists, will slowly but surely take control of the world’s assets and resources. This in turn means that elite invisible managers will control the distribution and use of the world’s assets and resources instead of national governments. Then citizens of the world will no longer have any say over such matters. But the coming technological surveillance and control system will eventually collapse to prepare the way for survivors to build a new and glorious civilization in the age to come. Read more of this here: http://www.wisdompage.com/2013%20Articles/Molyneaux%20essay.pdf

  7. Stephen Sadd Avatar
    Stephen Sadd

    The CIA are the Liberal World Orders little whoring slaves with just a couple of functioning brain cells, these fucktard gutter rats ARE THE LOWEST scum on the planet, and my full support goes to Russia & China to wipe the Western World off the face of planet earth. Do I wish to die? No, I wish peace and freedoom for ALL mankind, but I am sick to death of the shit-face-criminal-scum, known as the Australian government, who are themselves whoring fascist pigs, as is the rest of the Liberal World Order. All that comes from their mouths is vomit and deceit, as does ALL the world’s Central Banks, they are the filth behind the curtain, along with their criminal cowards of the UN and Big Tech. This group as a whole, are the nasty bunch of ass-holes that are out to destroy humanity as we know it, and to bring in their own twisted, sick and psychopathic mentality, of Humanity, whilst stealing ALL of Middle-Class’s wealth, by their covert and criminal manipulation of ALL financial markets, originally implemented 1913. The introduction of Fractional Reserve Banking! They are a Cartel, and they are out to destroy your life, and rob you of your wealth.That day is drawing nearer by the day, as is WW111. ARE YOU WILLING TO LET THIS HAPPEN?
    To every Australian I send this message, GET UP OFF YOUR KNEES, & STAND UP For your freedom and liberty, before they put us into chains! The time is now!

    1. Stephen Sadd Avatar
      Stephen Sadd

      The Program to Mask Society is a Grotesque Governmental Manipulation of a Frightened and Confused Public.
      From 9/11 to Covid-19: Watching as the CDC and NIST Destroy Their Own ReputationsJust a little evidence: ”
      https://www.globalresearch.ca/watching-cdc-nist-destroy-own-reputations/5724421

  8. Roundball Shaman Avatar
    Roundball Shaman

    “…The way media is set up to masturbate people’s confirmation bias instead of report objective facts will then cause the narrative to go viral throughout that partisan faction, regardless of how true or false it might be….The propaganda machine is only getting louder and more aggressive.”
    .
    The Professional Liars are the peddlers. The public are the junkies. The public is hooked on this stuff and craves more. They can’t get off the stuff. Their chosen bias needs a constant fix and the liar pros are more than happy to provide that to a hopelessly hooked public. No one wants to go cold turkey and get clean. And when you’re hooked on something, you always need more and more of the stuff to get the same high. Lies and deception are the currency of the day. And there is an endless supply of that mess.

  9. Harry Nydick Avatar
    Harry Nydick

    “A lying, torturing, propagandizing, drug trafficking, assassinating, coup-staging, warmongering, psychopathic spook agency with an extensive history of deceit and depravity.”

    Best description of the CIA that I’ve ever seen.

    1. Susan Siens Avatar
      Susan Siens

      I think organized criminal conspiracy is sufficient, but one can hardly disagree with Caitlin’s description.

  10. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    Ms Johnstone, we only need to look at all the other ” regime changes ” engineered by our ” deep state ” syndicate to see just what is in store for the people within these United States next year. There will be no more elections, there will be no more ” Constitution “, there will be no more Congress, there will be no more ” courts of law “! There will be strict martial law and absolutely ” no rights at all ” for anybody who dares to step out of line. Some people see it coming; but they do not have any idea of just how bad it is going to be. The ” Shah ” of the United States of America will be here very soon:
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/09/23/and-then-what-we-darent-not-look-into-abyss/
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/09/22/coming-soon-to-us-neighborhood-near-you-regime-change-foot-soldiers-parading-as-social-justice-warriors/

  11. Smedley Butler Avatar
    Smedley Butler

    No surprises here. It’s the American reality TV show. A competition to see who can be more full of shit. The establishment. Or, the Orange Buffoon who pretends to be at odds with that same establishment he pals around with. And, does the bidding of contrary to his public mouth spewing diarrhea.

  12. pasha Avatar
    pasha

    Hmm . . . “told to him”, “unnamed sources”, “secret”, “alleges”, “probably”.

    So, heresay having five levels of uncertainty describes what Vladbad the Bad and the Evil Rooskies are up to. Must be true then.

    On another topic, I went on the Guardian web site (gasp!) and repeatedly posted one word on all the articles that still have comments. (There aren’t many.)
    The word was “Assange.”
    Every single one vanished within seconds.

  13. Keith Hayes (K-Dog) Avatar
    Keith Hayes (K-Dog)

    Thank you for writing about this truth. The Deep State of domination and control. You only describe one of the many tentacles of the Cthulhu of the American DS today. There are many more tentacles. The machinery of what happens to Americans and other citizens of the 5 eyes (this means you) who dare write a counter narrative is another. They have forms to fill out for that.
    –
    You have become popular enough Caitlin and may not be aware of special attention. For you a particular check box is not checked off on one of the forms. If it becomes checked you might start seeing the same people everywhere you go. Unless you leave your phone at home. But you have a blog. I started a blog just to become popular enough to make my pesky stalkers go away. It worked and I hope for your continued success.
    –
    On my blog there is a menu of links easily found by searching https://chasingthesquirrel.com/. In that menu I have a section with these labels. NetHist 101A – NetHist 101B – NetHist 101C – NetHist 101D – NetHist 101E. Hover over them in order to read a tool-tip short story. A narrative I put there quite a while ago now.

  14. Blessthebeasts Avatar
    Blessthebeasts

    I can just picture Putin in the Kremlin asking Boris Badinov, “What can we do to make Biden look more like a buffoon?”
    People love cartoons!

  15. Jim McDonagh Avatar
    Jim McDonagh

    The world is in deep shit when a apparatchik from the Old KGB is the most respected political leader on the planet and Rachel Madcow a demented American talking head are given equal billing by the US media and its sycophants on the Internet ?

    1. jrkrideau Avatar
      jrkrideau

      Well, don’t forget the USA put a former head of the CIA in the White House.

      Besides the apparatchik is competent. I am not sure about Madow, she just seems mad.

      1. Jim McDonagh Avatar
        Jim McDonagh

        Mr Bush senior is 3 generations away from what Mr. Putin , the most competent leader of todays nuclear powers is dealing with these days . a poor comparison in my view.

  16. davenitup Avatar
    davenitup

    With Wall St pushing for Green Energy and Biden donors pushing for cabinet free of fossil fuel interests, I’m wondering if all the ground shaking is the divorce between powerful fossil fuel interests and global capital. Global capital seems the goliath, but that’s a powerfully messy divorce.

    1. davenitup Avatar
      davenitup

      Maybe DARPA\Military aligned with fossil fuels vs Global Capital\Wall St\CIA\NSA? Which team are the various tech platforms on? A lot of anti-trust rumblings against Google, Amazon?

  17. Sunrise Skipper Avatar
    Sunrise Skipper

    These days, just about any reporting about Russia or China, not to speak of Nicaragua, Cuba, or Venezuela, is tainted by a capital-driven, imperialist agenda demonizing any nation with a socialist program (I wonder why Vietnam is not in the crosshairs). I often wonder at the mix of believers and conscious propagandists in government and media.
    While President Xi Jin Ping advocates cooperation in this time of Covid, America goes its own way to stoke fires and propagate mayhem.

  18. John Day Avatar
    John Day

    According to confidential, high level source, “monkeys probably flew out of my butt”.
    http://www.johndayblog.com

  19. JWK Avatar
    JWK

    Fear and division are the primary tools of tyrants. Practically everything put forth by the CIA infiltrated Mockingbird Media is by design, to promote or exaggerate one or both. I don’t recall the last time I paid any attention to any of it except for entertainment. Years, maybe decades. Looking on the bright side, those of similar persuasion are growing in number, quite rapidly. It’s a race to see which one prevails, the skeptic or the suicidal. Sage advice from my father, “believe nothing you hear, and only half what you see”.

    1. ariel Avatar
      ariel

      ‘And if you want to think that that’s absurd,
      and you don’t believe a single word,
      then you’ve OBVIOUSLY NEVER HEARD,
      of OPERATION MOCKINGBIRD !’
      ‘OPERATION MOCKINGBIRD’ 2014 Ariel AZ Alexander YouTube.

  20. John Thomas Avatar
    John Thomas

    It’s all about exponentially increasing money and power for the already filthy rich money addicts. This corrupt usury-ridden money system imposed on us has allowed this to happen. Until humanity chooses to adopt honest interest-free money systems we’re stuck with this all the way to the nuclear crematorium.

    1. Sunrise Skipper Avatar
      Sunrise Skipper

      The Sumerians were fascinated by the concept of compound interest as they noted how an investment of one dollar at 12% interest would grow to the value of a golden ball the size of Earth in just a few hundred or so iterations. “honest interest-free money” is not necessarily the answer, but getting rid of compounding is.

  21. Another WorldView Is Possible Avatar
    Another WorldView Is Possible

    If only you TRULY understood the wily Asiatic MENACE that is Russia – and all things Russian…. https://yasha.substack.com/p/liberal-xenophobia
    Then – surely you would see, that it MUST BE RUSSIA – whose control over our eaaily hackable elections systems, and eggshell Democracy, that must have stolen the Democratic party’s nomination – for guy who declining mental faculties, would make disparagement such easy work… Damn they’re insidious… I fear that they may even have infiltrated CNN and MSNBC – in order to achieve this malign attack upon our unshakeable journalistic bastions. Like Angela Landsbury in The Mabchurian Candidate…it’s always tge ones that you’d LEAST SUSPECT…Eh Comrades Maddow, Hayes, Cuomo and Tapper?

    And this most recent OFFENSIVE in the information war, comes on the heels of the episode in the Kremlin’s mad poisoning spree, too. Zuess…is that a Russian name? https://www.globalresearch.ca/why-likelier-us-government-alexei-navalny-poisoned/5724465

    1. Sunrise Skipper Avatar
      Sunrise Skipper

      This comment illustrates the depth of anti-Russia propaganda. Starting with the overthrow of the owning class in Czarist Russia in 1917, Russian communists were consistently demonized, and rightly so, by the owning class members of the world. Feudal landowners, including the Orthodox Church, were killed off by an enraged population because of centuries of depredations. However, rather than mend their ways, the owners took up arms against the threat and when that failed, continued with an information war. Americans have experienced 100 years of anti-Russia propaganda, and it has been very effective.

  22. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    Yes Ms Johnstone, humanity is in the pot and the owners and the masters are putting in the cloves, pineapple, and basting sauce while the ” nuclear oven ” is heating up for our eventual placement within it. Soon we will be told to bend over and kiss our dumb asses goodbye!

    1. Susan Siens Avatar
      Susan Siens

      And what’s funny is that they apparently think they will live through the blast furnace of their own creation.

  23. Carson Avatar
    Carson

    that brooklyn dad dude is most likely candidate for CIA agent

  24. Joe Van Steenbergen Avatar
    Joe Van Steenbergen

    You seemingly can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

    The headline should read, “MSM Reads Verbatim Yet Another CIA Press Release As News.”

  25. Lisa H Avatar
    Lisa H

    I often wondered what these agencies have to gain, or what they were trying to spin to disparage whom, or some other pinpointed agenda. I’ve come to the conclusion that the desired outcome is simply chaos because who makes money with peace?

    If we all just stepped back a bit and realized we could end this nonsense in an instant and have the abundant world we all wish for we could truly have a planet that helps pretty much everyone on it. I thought that might happen as a byproduct of COVID. I guess that remains to be seen.

    1. Newton Finn Avatar
      Newton Finn

      Lisa, I also believe (hope) that the Covid pandemic–what I call the Great Disruption–will eventually cause a more humane and ecologically-sensitive reset of our societies. Right now, the rich are taking full advantage of the chaos to tighten their stranglehold on the rest of us, while the deep state media continues to crank out rank propaganda because, I think, that’s the only thing it knows to do, has been doing for many decades. I disagree with Caitlin that “we’re being prepped for something.” I don’t think that anyone–from the politicians to the plutocrats to the so-called experts to average people to the most marginalized among us–has the foggiest clue about what this Great Disruption will bring, how it will play out, what will come from it, etc. Again I refer to the sign in my front yard, which says all I know to say about our desperate plight: “We’re in this together. Bail out everyone.”

      1. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
        Tired and no longer active revolutionary

        Newton, some of us know what is coming: COVID-19 quarantines provides a pre-planned excuse for globalists to accelerate their sinister agenda as follows: (1) precipitate a global economic depression (2) force indebted governments to transfer ownership of their country’s bullion and natural resources as the only way they can settle unpayable debts. (3) track and control the world’s population through a vaccination program which promises to eliminate restrictions for obedient citizens (4) force everyone to accept a global government because globalists will own the world at that stage (5) continue to allow voting by secret ballot to entertain the dumb masses.

        1. Newton Finn Avatar
          Newton Finn

          Before Covid, the plutocrats ALREADY owned the world, had things their way, were running the show and getting richer by the minute by bleeding the rest of us to death. NOW we have chaotic disruption on a global scale and the uncertainty and instability it brings. Just like the rest of us, the plutocrats know the old saying: if it works, don’t fix it. Pre-Covid neoliberalism was working PERFECTLY for them.

  26. Fair dinkum Avatar
    Fair dinkum

    Gotta wonder _ _ _ _
    Is the CIA full of paranoid patriots, or do they simply do the bidding of the MIC? Or both?

  27. meh Avatar
    meh

    When I saw this headline, I just laughed and didn’t bother to read the “story.” It’s getting to the point that anything about Russia in the MSM is guaranteed to be made up. I remember reading about the declining Soviet Union, people were fed propaganda on a daily basis, but the people knew it was propaganda. I hope most Americans have reached this point with our lying media.

  28. Josh Avatar
    Josh

    Pretty sure they already decided to hang the election. Question is what they are going to try to pull off with it.

  29. khatika Avatar
    khatika

    But was it confirmed…..sry, couldnt help that one. I am just shocked that anyone believes such garbage news. I am wondering if there every was any truth in the news or was it all propaganda. It is just the internet allowing other sources to be readily available that makes it so obvious today.

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