CNN’s Anderson Cooper activates ‘Operation Mockingbird’ in Egypt

By Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire
Feb 3, 2011

In the latest cycle of news coverage out of Egypt, CNN’s award-winning TV personality Anderson Cooper, along with his CNN crew, claim to have been attacked by a violent mob of pro-Mubarak supporters in Cairo today. Far from constituting any real drama, his report does offer viewers an insight into how intelligence operatives within the media industrial complex are able to disseminate strategic talking points to millions of people at one time.

Following CNN’s Anderson Cooper highlighting a series of key talking points for today’s news cycle- one of which appears to be, “We (the western press) were attacked by a pro-Mubarak mob…”, we can witness what came next- the near clockwork precision that followed as this talking point was successfully recycled through hundreds of news feeds and Youtube video clips. Cooper also claims to have been “punched in the head ten times…” giving the impression that he was somehow beaten within an inch of his life whilst helping hoist the torch of freedom in Egypt.

What this episode also achieves is to reinforce amongst Americans and Europeans the subtle idea that the masses in the Middle East, or in this case the ‘pro-Mubarak mob’, somehow dislike the western press, or the “free press” as Americans and Europeans often like to see themselves in media terms. Already, western media pundits are busy mulling over ‘regime change’ options for replacing President Mubarak. The eventual result will likely be read from the top of a list of various agency objectives from the Anglo-American and Israeli Axis.

One might also suspect that all the major news networks and newspapers are in collusion together because with every major domestic and world event, all the identical taking points seem to appear in near synchronicity. It’s almost as if there could be some covert government sponsored program in place which makes this machine work so efficiently.

   
CNN and Anderson Cooper: Operation Mockingbird in action.

In reality, such a program does in fact exist and it has a name. Operation Mockingbird was a secret Central Intelligence Agency campaign to influence US domestic and foreign media beginning in the 1950s.

The sophisticated use of planting specific ideas and popular talking points like these serve to formulate a certain public opinion in the West. These opinions are set out in the orders and directives to agents of influence working within Operation Mockingbird and are subsequently passed down the chain of command within key media organisation to achieve results. One might ask the question: what are those results? Once the West’s public opinion is compatible with the foreign policy and economic interests of the Anglo-American and Israeli Axis powers then the said Western government will begin to enact their foreign strategy in real terms. This could include either regime change, a region’s territorial realignment, or to consolidate certain lucrative energy or geological interests into the hands of Anglo-American corporations. It could even be to maintain an air of instability in the region.

Decades on, Mockingbird is still an incredibly comprehensive CIA and State Department joint program where agents of influence are continually recruited and groomed for key positions on editorial boards of all major newspapers, magazines and most importantly, TV networks throughout the United States and certainly abroad too. Cooper, the silver haired award-winning CNN anchor, has been outed as being a former trainee in the CIA. Although it is not clear if he ever became a full-scale agent, many will certainly speculate that he has indeed infiltrated the high levels of journalism and is certainly in a position to mold public opinion- in classic the Edward Bernays tradition. As a result of the Frank Church investigations, a Congressional Report published in 1976 states:

“The CIA currently maintains a network of several hundred foreign individuals around the world who provide intelligence for the CIA and at times attempt to influence opinion through the use of covert propaganda. These individuals provide the CIA with direct access to a large number of newspapers and periodicals, scores of press services and news agencies, radio and television stations, commercial book publishers, and other foreign media outlets.”

This particular frenzied chase featuring Anderson Cooper, which CNN managed to shoot with avant guard, obtuse camera angles, and shaky blurring action, through the streets of the rioting mob in Cairo, only serves to remind people of other infamous and often contrived media scenes. Perhaps the greatest known example of this was the fake toppling of Saddam Hussien’s statue in Iraq, a theatrical event which was meant to signify the liberation of the Iraqi people by the hand of the United States. After originally reporting this story in exactly the same way as CNN, FOX and ABC, years later producers at MSNBC were finally allowed to run a half-hearted, mostly apologetic expose on the Saddam statue hoax, an effort which had no impact at all on the status of the ongoing occupation.

   
Years later, MSNBC decided to finally expose the obvious hoax in 2003.

Not so long ago, it was a cartel of major networks, including CNN, who worked tirelessly around the clock in order to promote Gulf Wars 1 & 2. In fact, producers at CNN thought it so important to paint events according to its Operation Mockingbird directives that it staged a faux missile attack from a broadcast studio- complete with blue screen back drops, potted palm trees and fake air-raid sirens. Normally, a stunt like this would discredit the network and force its producer and board to resign, none of which happened as a result.

   
CNN’s notorious staged missile attack broadcast in 1991.

Well known by now are the major networks’ coordinated effort from late 2002 and through to March 2003, successfully floated the idea in the minds of Americans and British, that there were ” WMD’s in Iraq…”.  This was done in advance in order to secure the public perception, tilling the soil of public opinion for the Coalition’s imminent invasion. There is no doubt this focused media effort had cemented this idea into the minds of viewers across the US, and without it, the present ten year military occupation of Iraq could not have been possible. As much as CNN has tried to paint the angry mobs in Egypt as enemies of the free press, recent events on US soil, namely the recent G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, demonstrate that the real free press operating inside the US will not be attacked by angry mobs, rather it will be the National Guardsmen, Police and State Troopers (sometimes dressed as anarchists) who will supply the aggression. This of course, is the current state of affairs within the US itself- and one which networks like CNN itself refused to cover at all.

As a parting footnote, one might also marvel at CNN’s staged chase scene through the angry (and allegedly) ‘Pro-Mubarak’ mob, a scene that almost bordered on comic relief as CNN’s Cooper could be heard helplessly screaming phrases in English like “calm down!” back to a mob of obvious Arabic-speaking Egyptians. All of this provided great television theatre, and will no doubt net Anderson Cooper some new journalism award before the year’s end.

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