Operation Mockingbird Legalized: FBI Now Impersonating Journalists, Media


Subverting the press to control public discourse and opinion is, unfortunately, nothing new.  So it’s not bad enough that the mainstream press favors a leftest agenda, we have to contend with disinformation inserted into the narrative by government operatives.

Jump back to the years just after the conclusion of World War II to a program called “Operation Mockingbird.”

Mockingbird covertly influenced national opinion for years, nefariously planting the CIA’s narrative on the unwitting collective public mind before finally being at least partially exposed over a decade later. It wasn’t until a congressional investigation in 1975 the putative full extent of the program was revealed. Although the CIA claimed it would no longer recruit journalists and media organizations into its folds, Mockingbird has oft been rumored never to have stopped.

Now fast-forward to today.

FBI agents conducting undercover investigations have now been given the green light to impersonate journalists, the Justice Department determined last week — effectively legalizing the government’s most notorious propaganda program, Operation Mockingbird.

Last Thursday, the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General published what’s become the subject of outrage for journalists, civil and constitutional rights advocates, and legal experts  — “A Review of the FBI’s Impersonation of a Journalist in a Criminal Investigation.”

Commenting on the practice of using agents who impersonate journalists to further its investigates,

… FBI Director James Comey penned a letter to the editor of the New York Times defending the agency’s impersonation, dismissively stating “we do use deception at times to catch crooks, but we are acting responsibly and legally.”

The Associated Press and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press didn’t believe either the veracity or legality of Comey’s statement, and sued the FBI to disclose documents relating to the practice — ultimately obtaining a redacted memo in which the agency acknowledged the agents violated the FBI’s own guidelines. However, the memo also stated that violation, under the circumstances, was not “unreasonable.”

What’s the FBI’s current policy?

As long as agents receive approval from the head of the FBI field office, the Undercover Review Committee, and the deputy director of the FBI — who then must meet with the deputy attorney general — they are free to pose as journalists during undercover investigations.

And you thought that as long as you smoked out the liberals bending the news to fit their agenda that you’d have news you could trust.  Thanks to “Mockingbird” in its current manifestation, you need to think again.

Source:  Activist Post



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