5
5
2
Of course, think-tank studies are useless without publicity, and here the CIA proved especially valuable. Using propaganda techniques it had perfected at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, the CIA and its allies turned American AM radio into a haven for conservative talk show hosts. Yes, Rush Limbaugh uses the same propaganda techniques that Muscovites once heard from Voice of America. The CIA has also developed countless other media outlets, like Capital Cities (which eventually bought ABC), major PR firms like Hill & Knowlton (the company that coached the Kuwaiti girl on how to lie to the media about seeing Iraqi troops kill Kuwaiti infants), and of course, all the Agency's connections in the national news media.22
The following is a typical example of how the "New Media" operates. As most political observers know, the Republicans suffer from a "gender gap," in which women prefer Democrats by huge majorities. This is, in fact, why Clinton has twice won the presidency. But, curiously enough, as the 1990s progressed, conservative female pundits began popping up everywhere in the media. Hard-right pundits like Ann Coulter, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, Laura Ingraham, Barbara Olson, Melinda Sidak, Anita Blair and Whitney Adams conditioned us to the idea of the conservative woman. However, this phenomenon was no accident. It turns out that Richard Mellon Scaife donated $450,000 over three years to the Independent Women's Forum, a booking agency that heavily seeds such female conservative pundits into the media.23
Summary and Conclusion
The most obvious criticism of the New Overclass is that their political machine is undemocratic. Using subversive techniques once aimed at communists, and with all the money they could ever need to succeed, the Overclass (with CIA help) undemocratically controls our government, our media, and even a growing part of academia. These institutions in turn allow the Overclass to control the supposedly "free" market. It doesn't win all the time, of course -- consider Bill Clinton's impeachment trial -- but it does score an endless string of other victories elsewhere, all to the detriment of workers, consumers, women, minorities and the poor. We need to fight it with everything we've got.
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/mockingbird.htm
Alternate links:
Myth: There's no "vast right wing conspiracy" to get Clinton. http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-clintonrightwingconspiracy.html
Myth: Conservative think tanks are the answer to liberal academia. http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-thinktank.htm
A Timeline of CIA Atrocities: http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/CIAtimeline.html
