Managing the Narrative

This section covers four sets of CIA records: a 1967 dispatch to stations abroad, the Church Committee's account of relationships with American journalists, a 1996 Senate hearing on the same subject, and the CIA's own history of the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Chapter 6 of the War and Defense report, Covert Action and Accountability, sets out the Church Committee's media findings in the context of covert action generally. This chapter does not repeat its count of relationships (DEF-6.10) and adds the February 1976 policy text and the Committee's statement on "fallout."

The audience was foreign. The dispatch states: "We do not recommend that discussion of the assassination question be initiated where it is not already taking place." Its attachment, a background survey of books on the assassination, is dated 4 January 1967. The Agency's stated concern in the dispatch was Communist propaganda and false allegations that Oswald had worked for the CIA. The dispatch does not address the accuracy of the Warren Commission's conclusions.

Book I quotes a 1967 passage by FitzGerald on propaganda placed through foreign publications: "Fallout in the United States from a foreign publication which we support is inevitable and consequently permissible." The Committee's section heading is "Covert Relationships with the United States Media." The CIA's position, stated by Colby and by George Bush, then Director of Central Intelligence, was that the relationships were foreign-focused and that the February 1976 policy ended the paid ties. The policy covers accredited correspondents. Unaccredited and freelance writers fall outside its text. The Committee found that most of the individuals were bona fide journalists, that they were witting, and that few of their organizations were aware of the arrangements.

Carl Bernstein reported in Rolling Stone in October 1977 that more than 400 American journalists carried out assignments for the CIA over 25 years and that at least 25 news organizations provided cover. The Rolling Stone press release states the figure as the contents of "documents on file at CIA headquarters." Bernstein drew on interviews with more than 35 current and former CIA officials, who were not named. He quotes William Colby, then Director of Central Intelligence, as telling Church Committee staff: "Let's not pick on some poor reporters, for God's sake. . . . Let's go to the managements. They were witting." Some persons the article names as cooperators denied or minimized the relationship. The article's figure and the Committee's figure cover different periods and definitions. The Committee published no names. The 400 figure is a journalist's report.

Deutch said the policy had been in place for about 19 years. He described the waiver as limited to cases such as hostage and weapons-of-mass-destruction situations, said the guidelines required tests and prompt notice to the intelligence committees, and said he had no intention of using journalists or clergy. Chairman Arlen Specter noted a House amendment, offered by Representative Richardson, that would have required a presidential decision instead. Journalists who testified, among them Ted Koppel, Terry Anderson, Mortimer Zuckerman and Kenneth Adelman, and representatives of religious bodies argued that a waiver put their members at risk.

Braden wrote that the CIA placed one agent in the Congress for Cultural Freedom and that another agent became an editor of Encounter. He had been the first chief of the Agency's International Organizations Division. Braden defended the program as an answer to Soviet-sponsored organizations. The Warner article is an author's study published on the CIA's own site, an official release and not a leak. Braden's account of the Encounter funding is the former officer's own testimony.

Three Defense Department matters fall between 2002 and 2011: the Office of Strategic Influence, the retired-analyst outreach program of the Bush administration, and the reviews of that program by GAO and the Inspector General, which reported under the Obama administration.

Rumsfeld said that much of the press criticism of the office was "off the mark," and that the office had been so damaged that it could not function effectively. He said the department would not plant false information in foreign media. He added that leaflets, radio broadcasts and other information operations would continue in other offices.

The New York Times reported on 20 April 2008, after a lawsuit that produced about 8,000 pages of e-mail messages, transcripts and records, that internal Pentagon documents "repeatedly refer to the military analysts as 'message force multipliers' or 'surrogates.'" The Times reported that the analysts represented more than 150 military contractors. The article led to the GAO and Inspector General reviews. The Inspector General's 2011 review examined more than 25,000 documents and interviewed 63 of 74 analysts. It asked 35 of the 43 analysts with contractor affiliations and identified none who used the outreach to gain new or expanded contract business. It recommended written guidance and a plan for such groups, and the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs concurred.

Congress required the opinion in section 1056 of Pub. L. 110-417. GAO found no evidence that DOD concealed its role or paid the analysts for favorable commentary, and on that basis found no violation. The footnote on the withdrawn report states that the Deputy Inspector General withdrew it because its methodology would not reasonably yield evidence about financial advantage. The Inspector General's 2011 report cites the GAO opinion for the conclusion that the outreach "did not violate the publicity or propaganda prohibition."

GAO decides whether agencies have used appropriated funds for "publicity or propaganda" purposes, a limit that Congress carries in annual appropriations acts. The opinions below apply it to prepackaged news stories, a paid commentator and a social-media campaign. In the Bush-era opinions the missing fact was attribution. B-304228 states that "the essential fact of attribution is missing." Requesters came from both parties, and the reviewed agencies came from administrations of both parties.

In the HHS opinion GAO found that a person presented as a reporter had been hired by an HHS subcontractor, and that the use of funds also violated the Antideficiency Act. In the ONDCP opinion GAO examined eight video news releases from fiscal years 2002 to 2004 and found seven covert propaganda. It also held that ONDCP's use of the term "Drug Czar" was not unlawful self-aggrandizement. In the Education opinion GAO found the Ketchum-produced video news release on tutoring under No Child Left Behind, paid at $38,421.06, to be "covert propaganda." It found the associated media analyses, paid at $96,850.99, lawful except that one report assessed whether "the Bush Administration/the GOP is committed to education." GAO wrote that "Appropriated funds are not available to evaluate the Republican Party's . . . commitment to education."

Opinion B-305368 concerns Williams. Opinion B-304228, issued the same day, concerns the video news release and does not mention him. Senators Lautenberg and Kennedy requested the Williams opinion, which relies on the Education Inspector General's report A19-F0007 of 15 April 2005. The contract ran through Ketchum under Task Orders 9 and 16.

Senator James Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, requested the opinion. GAO found that two other EPA campaigns, #DitchtheMyth and #CleanWaterRules, did not violate the prohibition. It also found an Antideficiency Act violation. EPA argued that it made no attempt to conceal its role. GAO disagreed on Thunderclap and on the two hyperlinks only.

Congress rewrote the statutory limit on domestic dissemination in section 1078 of Pub. L. 112-239, enacted 2 January 2013 in the defense authorization act for fiscal year 2013. The section amends 22 U.S.C. 1461 so that the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors may, on request, make materials produced for foreign audiences available in the United States. New section 208(a) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for fiscal years 1986 and 1987 states: "No funds authorized to be appropriated to the Department of State or the Broadcasting Board of Governors shall be used to influence public opinion in the United States." Supporters describe the change as access to existing material and note that section 208(a) remains. No cited document shows domestic use of such material.

The 2016 New York Times Magazine profile of Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, describes the Obama White House's effort to build support for the Iran nuclear agreement through think tanks, outside groups, social-media tracking and friendly reporters. The author quotes Rhodes: "We created an echo chamber." The profile also quotes him on the use of outside groups: "We had test drives to know who was going to be able to carry our message effectively, and how to use outside groups like Ploughshares, the Iran Project and whomever else." In the same passage the author writes that Rhodes bridled at the suggestion that the agreement was sold deceptively. The account rests on one journalist's reporting of a named official's words.

Missouri v. Biden, filed in the Western District of Louisiana, is the principal litigated record of Executive Branch contacts with social media platforms. The plaintiffs were states and individuals. The first two findings concern preliminary rulings, which test likelihood of success and do not decide the merits.

The 155-page memorandum ruling followed expedited discovery. The court wrote: "The Plaintiffs have presented substantial evidence in support of their claims that they were the victims of a far-reaching and widespread censorship campaign." Its summary of the evidence at that stage describes "an almost dystopian scenario." The ruling is a preliminary finding. The Supreme Court later held that the plaintiffs lacked standing.

The Fifth Circuit held that the White House, the Surgeon General's office, the CDC and the FBI likely coerced or significantly encouraged the platforms and that CISA likely significantly encouraged them. Justice Barrett wrote for the majority, and Justices Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch dissented. The majority found "the lack of specific causation findings with respect to any discrete instance of content moderation. The District Court made none." It stated in a footnote that, because it did not reach the merits, it expressed no view on the First Amendment question. The Fifth Circuit vacated the injunction on remand on 26 August 2024.

The government's position in the litigation was that its communications with platforms were permitted persuasion on matters of public health and safety. The Supreme Court's opinion states that the platforms had their own incentives to moderate content. The Murthy defendants are officials of the Biden administration. Section 7.3 covers Bush- and Obama-era opinions, and section 7.5 covers 2025 actions of the Trump administration.

Meta's chief executive wrote to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on 26 August 2024. A letter from Representative Nancy Mace to the White House of 11 September 2024 reproduces this passage from it: "In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our team for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree." The passage is quoted in the Mace letter and carries no finding. According to press accounts, a statement attributed to the White House said the administration "encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety."

This section covers four actions from 2016 to 2025: a State Department office created by statute under one party's President and closed under the other's, a Homeland Security board that an advisory council recommended against, a letter by former officials that a later executive order answered, and the exclusion of a news agency from a press pool. The Global Engagement Center was created under President Obama and closed under President Trump. The Homeland Security board belongs to the Biden administration. The letter was published during the first Trump administration, and a Trump executive order answered it in 2025. The press-pool exclusion is a 2025 Trump administration action.

The statute's functions refer to narratives "abroad" and audiences "outside the United States." Pub. L. 115-232 section 1284 (13 August 2018) amended the authority, and under the amended text it ended eight years after 23 December 2016, which is 23 December 2024. The Rubio statement says the office cost taxpayers more than $50 million a year. It describes the office as R/FIMI, "formerly known as the Global Engagement Center." Whether the office did what the statement says is an assertion in the statement. The statute limits the office's assigned work to foreign propaganda and disinformation. The Fifth Circuit removed the State Department from the Murthy injunction in 2023 (section 7.4).

The subcommittee, co-chaired by Jamie Gorelick and Michael Chertoff, had reached the same conclusion in an interim recommendation of 18 July 2022. The final report adds that "the underlying work of Department components on this issue is critical." Press accounts report the DHS statement ending the Board and the April 2022 announcement of the Board. Critics called the Board a "ministry of truth," according to press accounts, and the cited documents record no action by the Board against anyone's speech.

The letter, titled "Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails," runs seven pages. It states: "We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not." Politico reported the letter under the headline "Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intelligence officials say." The signers acted as private individuals, and the letter is not an agency act. Executive Order 14152, published at 90 Federal Register 8343 on 29 January 2025, states that at least 51 former officials coordinated with the Biden campaign to issue the letter and that it was sent to the CIA's Prepublication Classification Review Board before release. Those statements are the President's characterization in the order. The order is also a government action against named private citizens.

The court wrote: "For that editorial choice, the White House sharply curtailed the AP's access to coveted, tightly controlled media events with the President." The court stayed its own order through 13 April 2025. Press accounts report that the D.C. Circuit later stayed the injunction in part. The White House position, as reported, was that it may decide who joins limited events and that the AP refused to use the administration's new name for the gulf. The ruling is a preliminary finding.

Two House committees investigated tax-exempt foundations within two years of each other. Their reports reached opposite conclusions, and the vote on the second divided along party lines. A sentence from a 1916 General Education Board paper circulates without its context, and the section gives the passage around it. This section reports the committees' charges as charges.

The majority's finding 14 states that some larger foundations "have directly supported 'subversion' in the true meaning of that term, namely, the process of undermining some of our vitally protective concepts and principles." That sentence is the committee's own definition and charge. The same finding states that foundations "have not directly supported organizations which, in turn, operated to support Communism" with several exceptions, including the Institute of Pacific Relations. The Minority Views, on pages 417 to 431, state that the minority "does not agree with the report submitted by the majority" and "earnestly believes that it should never be published," and call the inquiry "a complete waste of public money." The minority quotes a floor remark by Reece that "There is evidence to show there is a diabolical conspiracy back of all this," and argues the majority prejudged the question. Reece's supplemental statement states: "The lines have not been drawn in this Committee on a political party basis."

The Reece majority report states that the Carnegie Corporation of New York provided "heavy aggregate financing (a total of $340,000)" from 1928 to 1933 to "The American Historical Society [sic]," a constituent of the American Council of Learned Societies, for the Commission on Social Studies, whose final section appeared in 1934. The heading of that section of the report is the majority's charge: "The Carnegie Corporation Finances Socialism." The $340,000 figure appears in the Reece report alone, and the report states nothing about the terms of the grant. The report also describes the Commission as a foundation-supported organization and records that a member, Merriam, dissented.

Under the heading "A Vision of the Remedy" Gates writes: "Let us, at least, yield ourselves to the gratifications of a beautiful dream that there is. In our dream, we have limitless resources, and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hand." He continues that "we shall allow ourselves to be extravagant since we are only dreaming." The sentence is often quoted without the words before it. The essay then describes training for rural people "just where they are." The quotation is from the 1916 printing, and the first issue is commonly dated 1913.

No finding in this chapter rests on the Twitter Files, the internal company communications that Twitter's owner released beginning in December 2022, or on the House Oversight hearing on Twitter and the Hunter Biden story of 8 February 2023.

Records that would settle further points include the Zuckerberg letter itself, Education Inspector General report A19-F0007, the Office of Legal Counsel opinion of 30 July 2004, the agencies' compliance after the 2004 and 2005 GAO opinions, any Trump-era GAO opinion on the same prohibition, and the Fifth Circuit's June 2025 stay in the Associated Press case and later proceedings. The DHS announcement of the Board and its termination statement, the 18 November 2002 Rumsfeld remark on the Office of Strategic Influence, and Ford Foundation funding of Encounter after 1966 would also settle open points.

The chapter documents each relationship between a government actor and the press or platforms as the records state it. It makes no claim about the intent of any named living person beyond that person's own words.