In 1975, a quiet storm rolled through Washington, D.C. Senators, intelligence officials, and journalists filled hearing rooms with nervous energy. The United States Senate had launched a full investigation into the secret activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This committee, led by Senator Frank Church, would expose something that shocked the nation: the CIA had been secretly working with American journalists to influence public opinion. This discovery helped reveal a rumored program called Project Mockingbird.
Though not officially named in CIA documents, Project Mockingbird has come to represent the CIA’s deep involvement with significant media outlets during the Cold War. The program, or at least the behavior it describes, was designed to influence both foreign and domestic audiences by controlling the news. It was not found on a single page of paper labeled “Mockingbird,” but emerged through testimony, investigative reporting, and hints in declassified documents. Perhaps the most striking aspect of this story is that the CIA influenced media abroad, planted stories in American news outlets, and cultivated relationships with hundreds of journalists, including some who worked for the most prominent names in the industry.
The story of Project Mockingbird gained traction after journalist Carl Bernstein, one of the reporters who helped uncover the Watergate scandal, published an article in Rolling Stone in 1977. Bernstein reported that the CIA had connections with more than 400 American journalists from outlets such as The New York Times, CBS, and Time Magazine. According to Bernstein, “journalists were engaged to perform tasks for the CIA with the consent of their news organizations” (Bernstein). These tasks included gathering intelligence, disseminating pro-American stories, and occasionally acting as undercover agents.
The operation was reportedly overseen by high-ranking CIA officials such as Frank Wisner, who led the Office of Policy Coordination, the agency’s covert operations wing in the 1950s. Wisner viewed media as a weapon in the Cold War and believed controlling information was just as crucial as controlling borders. Under his leadership, the CIA recruited editors, writers, and reporters. One of Wisner’s most infamous nicknames for the media, under CIA influence, was his “Mighty Wurlitzer,” a reference to the massive organ that could play many tunes at once — in this case, spreading propaganda across multiple platforms simultaneously (Simpson 9).
Despite the shocking revelations, the CIA never officially admitted to a program called “Mockingbird.” The name itself appears to have originated in 1979 in Deborah Davis’s biography Katharine the Great, about Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. However, because much of the behavior Davis described matches what was later confirmed by the Church Committee and Bernstein’s reporting, “Project Mockingbird” became a label for this network of CIA-media relations.
The Church Committee’s final report in 1976 confirmed that the CIA had maintained relationships with journalists but avoided giving specific numbers. It stated, “Approximately 50 of the CIA relationships involved individuals who were consciously providing the CIA with information… The remaining individuals were unaware that they were dealing with the CIA” (U.S. Senate Select Committee 456). Though the report didn’t go as far as some expected, it still revealed a clear pattern of media manipulation.
In response to public outrage, the CIA announced it would no longer have paid relationships with full-time American journalists. However, critics noted that the agency had left a loophole — it could still engage freelance journalists, foreign reporters, or anyone who wasn’t technically full-time. This quiet shift allowed the CIA to maintain some influence without directly breaking its promise.
Project Mockingbird may remain a controversial and mysterious topic, partly due to its unofficial status and partly because of the inherently vague nature of intelligence work. However, what is clear is that during one of the most perilous periods in modern history, the line between news and national security was blurred. The media, often regarded as the watchdog of democracy, was partially guided by the very institutions it was supposed to hold accountable.
Works Cited
Bernstein, Carl. “The CIA and the Media.” Rolling Stone, 20 Oct. 1977, https://carlbernstein.com/the-cia-and-the-media-rolling-stone/.
Simpson, Christopher. Blowback: America’s Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effects on the Cold War. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988.
U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. Final Report – Book I: Foreign and Military Intelligence. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/94755_I.pdf
