Petrusenko, Vitaly. A Dangerous Game: CIA and the Mass Media. Prague: Interpress, 1977. 190 pages.

During the 1970s a series of revelations about U.S. involvement in Vietnam, Watergate, the FBI, and CIA opened up a window on the secret state. After some fresh air passed over some dirty laundry, the window slammed shut and Reagan was elected. Perhaps it was the revolutions in Iran and Nicaragua, or the economy, or maybe the attention span of the media had been exceeded. Another possibility is that the revelations were getting too close.

Despite the conducive climate, very little ink was spent on a broad discussion of the relationship between the CIA and the mass media (one exception was a New York Times series in late December, 1977). Apparently the media had little desire to undermine their own credibility, so the bits and pieces of evidence, the confessions, and the denials tended to emerge one column-inch at a time. That left the field to the Eastern Bloc press. In this book out of Czechoslovakia, which was translated from a Russian edition, Petrusenko compiles evidence of the CIA-media connection. "It is based completely on published materials from news media in the United States, Great Britain and other countries.... The author believes this is the first attempt to gather together a considerable body of material that originally appeared in different monographs, magazines and newspapers."
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