In this special podcast just for Pearse’s patreon subscribers (also available to my subscribers) we discuss all things Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix and Christopher Wylie. Fundamentally we ask whether their activities are new or unique, or merely the most well-known when dozens of other companies and government agencies do the same things. We finish up […](Read more...)
In our mid-season review and analysis of Homeland season 7, Pearse and I get into various strands of the show including the Brett O’Keefe/Waco arc, the Russiagate conspiracy, how the CIA should be portrayed as having utterly failed the country but have somehow dressed themselves up as the heroes, fake news, Russian ‘active measures’ and […](Read more...)
AUSTIN, TEXAS – YouTube is apparently planning to deputize crowd-sourced online encyclopedia Wikipedia in a bid to combat the spread of disinformation, according to its CEO Susan Wojcicki.
(MEE) — On Donald Trump’s re-election campaign website, the “Listening to America 2018” survey asks for opinions on hot button issues facing the country. Predictably for a divided America, much of its language is loaded and many of the questions are leading. But the issues covered are mostly real concerns that many people in the United States have: things […]
Professor CJ invited me onto his Dangerous History Podcast recently to discuss the research behind National Security Cinema, what we found, and what it means. We talk about conspiracy theories, how I got into this line of research, what methods I employed, the nature of the entertainment liaison offices and some of the more surprising films and TV shows supported by the state.
Cambridge Analytica are a big data marketing firm who, according to numerous media commentators, were the critical factor in the election of Donald Trump. They are the subject of many officially-endorsed, fully-mainstreamed conspiracy theories proposed by different segments of the political-media spectrum. This week we take a critical look at these theories and ask whether those who believe in them are confusing technological sophistication with real-world effectiveness.
A recently released document from the JFK files has confirmed an old rumour: that the CIA helped arrange the affair between actress Susan Cabot and King Hussein of Jordan. The memo records how the man directly involved was the CIA’s on-the-ground fixer in Hollywood, Robert Maheu. The Affair Cabot was a well-known B-movie starlet who […](Read more...)
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.
— Edward Bernays, Propaganda, 1928
Aside from Ian Fleming, there is no more influential spy author than Tom Clancy. Clancy’s books (and the films and computer games based on them) benefited from his close contact with the US government. This week we shed light on his relationships with the CIA and the NSA, and ask whether the CIA’s public affairs […](Read more...)
