Media intelligence complex
The Media-intelligence complex is an informal alliance between the nation's intelligence community and the mainstream media which seen together is a vested interest influencing public opinion and policy.[1] A driving factor in this relationship between the government and corporate media is that both sides benefit.
The term has come to be used in reference to the system behind the intelligence community of the United States, where it is most prevalent. Its origin is borrowed from a term in the farewell address of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, warning of the dangers of the military-industrial complex. Unlike the military, there is no tradition of outside civilian control of the Intelligence Community, which has exploded in size and influence since Eisenhower's day.
Companymen
Like the US Marines, the CIA, or more simply 'the Company' have a code to live by. Just as the Marines say, "once a Marine, always a Marine," so to those who have been trained or do operational work for the CIA say, "once a Companyman, always a Companyman." There is no such thing as ex-CIA; as with all intelligence agencies worldwide, the only former intelligence agent is dead or a traitor.
A retired or innactive Companyman can be reactivated at anytime. While not directly on the Company payroll, this is often done through private Fifth Column front organizations such as Blackwater, CrowdStrike, etc.
Below is a list available in non-classified open source of media personalities who are also Companymen. Note, there are 16 US intelligence agencies that constitute the US intelligence community, and often a member associated with one agency is mistakenly identified with another. In this sense, the terms CIA agent, asset, analyst, activity, operation etc., can be used as an umbrella catch-all phrase that can mask a person's true association.
- David Ignatius, Washington Post
- Anderson Cooper, CNN
Historic examples
The work of a journalist lends itself well to the field of intelligence activity, both in information gathering and mass propagandizing. Below is a list of deceased persons incorporating international journalists who did intelligence work.
- Ernest Hemingway
- Kim Philby
- Richard Sorge
- Michael Straight
- Whittaker Chambers
- Bernard Redmont
- Richard Setaro
- Anna Louise Strong
- Louis Adamic
- Carl Marzani
- Hede Massing
- Jessica Smith
- Agnes Smedley
- Mark Gayn
- Owen Lattimore
- Wilfred Burchett