Eric
Draitser sits down with author Nicholas Schou to discuss his new book
Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood*.
Eric and Nick explore the history of CIA manipulation of the media
going back decades, and how it has evolved into the propaganda
consensus we see today. The conversation touches on everything from
Nicaragua and the Reagan counter-revolution to the sycophantic
relationship between Hollywood and Langley. From Robert Parry to
Robert Kagan, from South Vietnam to Baghdad, the story of CIA
information warfare is a long and sordid one, and Schou's new book is
an important contribution in telling it.
A few
interesting points:
The CIA used
to have agents working inside every major Hollywood studio. They were
actually taking, for example, scripts like "Animal House"
which had a very anti-capitalist message fundamentally, even though
it's commonly viewed a sort of warning about Stalinism, it was still
a kind of pro-Socialist script, until the CIA got its hands on it and
completely changed it around.
This is
something that in the 1980s again happened when the CIA was able to
start working directly with Hollywood producers and directors to try
to get favorable coverage. And it was really during the Clinton era
when that really became corporatized and you had Chase Brandon, who
was a CIA officer, working directly with Hollywood.
Obviously
9/11 just completely opened the floodgates for the fear factory.
Robert Kagan
was working with the office of public diplomacy in the Reagan
administration. He has become probably the single most influential
and most important neocon ideologue in the last 30 years of the
entire neocon movement, and so, it's fascinating to see how somebody
whose kind of beginnings start with this perception management public
relations, media manipulation world, is actually growing to be the
central neocon leader and ideologue.
Draitser and
Schou also discuss the fact that the CIA narratives are penetrating
the American public through Hollywood series and films in a manner
that has become more sophisticated. Characters appear more
"vulnerable" in various ways, which creates a more
"humanized" hero, closer to the everyday audience. In the
end, despite all his/her "vulnerabilities", the hero is
doing his/her "patriotic duty".
That's
because the American public has become more skeptical and suspicious
due to the failures and disasters in various wars and especially
after the Iraq war.
Full
interview:
* The
American people depend on a free press to keep a close and impartial
watch on the national security operations that are carried out in our
name. But in many cases, this trust is sadly misplaced, as leading
journalists are seduced and manipulated by the secretive agencies
they cover.
While the
press remains silent about its corrupting relationship with the
intelligence community—a relationship that dates back to the Cold
War—Spooking the News will blow the lid off this unseemly
arrangement. Schou will name names and shine a spotlight on flagrant
examples of collusion, when respected reporters have crossed the line
and sold out to powerful agencies. The book will also document how
the CIA has embedded itself in “liberal” Hollywood to ensure that
its fictional spies get the hero treatment on screen.
Among the
revelations in Spooking the News:
• The CIA
created a special public affairs unit to influence the production of
Hollywood films and TV shows, allowing celebrities involved in
pro-CIA projects—including Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck—unique
access inside the agency's headquarters.
• The CIA
vets articles on controversial topics like the drone assassination
program and grants friendly reporters background briefings on
classified material, while simultaneously prosecuting ex-officers who
spill the beans on damaging information.
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