This blog recently posted on "The American Empire and Its
Media"; click here. The blog also
transcribed the legend that identifies the journalists with the photograph; the readable transcription is also at the link.
Today, this blog is linking to the Swiss Policy Research’s Introduction to this expose of media allegiances.
Largely unbeknownst to the general
public, executives and top journalists of almost all major US media outlets
have long been members of the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Established in 1921 as a private,
bipartisan organization to “awaken America to its worldwide responsibilities”, the CFR
and its close to 5000 elite members for decades have shaped US foreign policy
and public discourse about it. As a well-known Council member famously explained, they transformed the American republic into a
global empire, albeit a “benevolent” one.
Based on official membership
rosters, the following illustration depicts for the first time the extensive
media network of the CFR and its two major international affiliate
organizations: the Bilderberg Group (mainly covering the US and Europe)
and the Trilateral Commission (covering North America, Europe
and East Asia), both established by Council leaders to foster elite cooperation
at the global level.
In a column entitled “Ruling Class Journalists”, former Washington Post senior editor and
ombudsman Richard Harwood described the Council and its members approvingly as
“the nearest thing we have to a ruling establishment in the United States”.
Harwood continued: “The membership
of these journalists in the Council, however they may think of themselves, is
an acknowledgment of their active and important role in public affairs and of
their ascension into the American ruling class. They do not merely analyze and
interpret foreign policy for the United States; they help make it. They are
part of that establishment whether they like it or not, sharing most of its
values and world views.”
However, media personalities
constitute only about five percent of the overall CFR network. As the following
illustration shows, key members of the private Council on Foreign Relations
have included:
* several US Presidents and Vice
Presidents of both parties;
* almost all Secretaries of State,
Defense, and the Treasury;
* many high-ranking commanders of
the US military and NATO;
* some of the most influential
Members of Congress (notably in foreign & security policy);
* almost all National Security
Advisors, CIA Directors, Ambassadors to the U.N., Chairs of the Federal
Reserve, Presidents of the World Bank, and Directors of the National Economic
Council;
* many prominent academics,
especially in key fields such as Economics and Political Science;
* many top executives of Wall
Street, policy think tanks, universities, NGOs, and Hollywood;
* as well as the key members of both
the 9/11 Commission and the Warren Commission (JFK)
Lots more at the link here.
The linked article is footnoted. The
tentacles are everywhere.
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