Think I’ve seen all the Frontline documentaries available online actually - and I would say that it is one of the best investigative journalism works we have available to us, along with ProPublica and a bunch of others.
But PBS is always used as a “joke” so I guess a lot of people do not take them seriously, or even bother checking them out.
Either way, how the CIA works vs. how the CIA information is reported/(ab)used is two different things.
The people who tried to tell the truth were silenced, and whatever they tried to speak out about was ignored by pretty much everyone. The end result is that the “brand” CIA is forever associated with:
- Unicorn WMDs in Iraq
- Rendition Flights to torture people in Egypt and other “previously friendly states before NATO liberated them to be run by IS”
Course, their image before 9/11 wasn’t exactly a shining beacon either.
In the end everyone would blame the CIA for the “Intelligence Failure” even though Pentagon under Rumsfeld made up their own intelligence gathering unit (which made buddy with Fake source #1 Chalabi) that provided a lot of the “fodder” for going in.
Which was why my actual quote was:
“But… Is this the same CIA that claimed Iraq had WMDs - or was that more of an “appointed staff claimed vs. service members were screaming the opposite to a deaf nation”?” (Which I could have phrased better, since, that was kind of the truth back then, but is the leak a political “leak” to the press which is basically just lies coming from the right source, and he used to provide good intel before, or an actual intelligence officer leaking true information) I guess if the NSA spent less time hacking everyone and more time going after actual sources, maybe you’d be able to attribute things better.
I suppose the biggest hindrance to the CIA information actually being used correctly, in addition to “appointed” oversight/bosses (and not Leaders) is the fact that the employees are so loyal to the “Chain of command” and structures that hold them in their place (and quietly choking them), and the punishment for stepping off the path so severe, that they can do the best god damn job in the world, but politicians will still cherry pick or twist whatever information their provide to suit their goals, and the Media are running around after Twitter accounts than any actual truths, while the country is to gullible, lazy or just worn down/overworked to worry about it anyway, and with the latest episode of -some-fucking-show- coming up on TV/*Flix in the next 5 minutes they do not have time or the effort (after cooking food for the kids, paying the bills, worrying about the mortgage and if they’ll have a job or healthcare next week thanks to corporations run amok, they just hide in their homes and hope that some day it will all be right and the good guys will be back in charge (but they never will).
Good times.
Still, it doesn’t absolve the US; as has been stated earlier that there were a lot of issues with electronic voting back in 2000 and for all intents and purposes, nothing was done.
My impression is that some in the US are basically blaming Russia for allegedly running a more effective propaganda platform using US assets (Twitter, Facebook, Google+ (lol)) and their own RT than they themselves could… (Even though the US has been using those same methods in other countries over the years themselves…)
Wasn’t FOX the masters of Propaganda back in 2000/2004, what happened to those folks- surely they didn’t grow a conscience or worried about any aftermath?
