Editor of major German newspaper says he planted stories for CIA

[JDPriestly]

50. Russian media is probably no better than ours, but we don't follow Russian media, so it is

not relevant to us. Chinese media is probably utterly insane.

It is natural for the powerful in a country to want to control the news. It is the job of the press to prevent the powerful from doing so. The question is not whether the press is helping the CIA collect information. If the information is accurate, so what?

The problem is whether the press is being fed inaccurate information by the intelligence services in order to mislead the public.

The press is supposed to vet it sources. If the news from the CIA is reliable and verifiable, so be it. But if the CIA is making up news stories in order to influence the political opinions of Americans, then we have a problem. Because at that point, if that were so, the CIA would be making the news and forming opinion. And that is NOT ITS JOB.

If the CIA is receiving information from legitimate or knowledgeable sources, and that information is accurate and reliable, then it is doing its job which is to obtain information so that the administration can make good decisions for the American people. That is the idealistic purpose of intelligence. All countries need information. All countries need intelligence.

We make enough mistakes as a nation with our intelligence. But if we tried to make decisions without knowing what is going on beneath the surface, if we did not have intelligence we would make even worse mistakes. The question is whether our intelligence is honest or whether it is tainted by a political point of view. And it might be tainted if it serves the corporate leadership and not all Americans.