Final_Judgment

[260] Final Judgment 321
Even the late Jacqueline Kennedy—subsequently married to Greek
billionaire Aristotle Onassis—was held up to ridicule by the media in
subsequent years. Not even she was free from the media's defamation.
THE HUNT-CIA CONNECTION SUPPRESSED
Despite all the media's fascination with the Kennedy family, the media
was strangely silent about the astounding revelations that came forth in the
E. Howard Hunt-Spotlight newspaper libel trial in Miami in 1985. It was
then, as we saw in Chapter 16, that the jury concluded that the CIA had
indeed played a part in John F. Kennedy's assassination. However, the
CIA's friends at The Washington Post had barely a word to say about
Hunt's stunning loss during the trial. Was this by accident—or by design?
At this juncture the conclusion is all too obvious.
THE CIA AND THE MEDIA
That the CIA, of course, has had a major role in subverting the First
Amendment and influencing the American media is now a widely accepted
truth. According to David Wise, writing in The American Police State,
which examined, in part, the role of the CIA in manipulating the media:
"The CIA's contacts with the publishing world were not confined to
attempts to suppress books. Through the U.S. Information Agency as a
`cut-out,' the CIA subsidized major publishers to produce books, some of
which were then sold in the United States bearing no government imprint to
warn the unsuspecting purchaser.
"In 1967 publisher Frederick A. Praeger conceded he had published
`fifteen or sixteen' books for the CIA. By the mid-sixties, more than $1
million had been spent by the government on its 'book development'
program. The Senate intelligence committee estimated that by 1967, the
CIA had produced, sponsored, or subsidized 'well over 1,000' books' here
and abroad." 707
(One of Praeger's volumes is interesting in light of the "French
connection" to the JFK case. In 1989 Praeger issued Challenging DeGaulle:
The OAS and the Counterrevolution in Algeria. Former CIA Director
William Colby wrote the introduction to Harrison's book which was
described as the first fully documented history of the OAS.)
Wise continues: "The CIA also planted stories in the foreign press,
some of which were played back to American audiences. [CIA Director
William] Colby assured the House intelligence committee that the CIA
would never manipulate [the Associated Press], since it was an American
wire service. In addition, the CIA operated two news services of its own in
Europe. These 'proprietaries,' or CIA cover companies, serviced American
newspapers; one had more than thirty U.S. subscribers." 708
However, there is one other significant force in American life which
plays an even bigger part in shaping the media.