Re: Lobster Magazine Winter 2020 Archived Message Posted by scrabb on October 1, 2020, 6:12 pm, in reply to "Lobster Magazine Winter 2020" From a review of The State of Secrecy: Spies and the Media in Britain: We already know that organisations like the Integrity Institute, and its notorious sort of predecessor the Information Research Department, have anonymously distributed state propaganda through networks of journalists and academics. The State of Secrecy adds to these examples. We learn about British spies writing under pseudonyms for mainstream news organisations, as well as the close relationships that have existed between a number of significant British journalists and the secret intelligence services. Mark Laity, the BBC’s former defence correspondent, was furious at the Leveson hearings when he was accused of being ‘too close’ to the Ministry of Defence. He is now a kspokesman for NATO. Even more strikingly, Norton-Taylor recalls moments where supposedly independent journalists have suspended their critical faculties out of deference to the intelligence services. In one anecdote Ed Vulliamy – the journalist played in amusingly ham fashion by Rhys Ifans in the recent film Official Secrets – is briefed by MI6 that Bosnian authorities are attacking their own citizens in order to provoke NATO into military intervention. MI6 provided no evidence for their claim but the story spread quickly through the British, American and European press. It seems to Norton-Taylor that the British state has authored and propagated a highly damaging conspiracy theory. Such incidents often make this book a depressing read. Before long you wish you find yourself wanting to read a book about spies failing to penetrate the British media. Message Thread: Lobster Magazine Winter 2020 - Mary October 1, 2020, 8:27 am Re: Lobster Magazine Winter 2020 - scrabb October 1, 2020, 6:12 pm Re: Lobster Magazine Winter 2020 - Sinister Burt October 1, 2020, 7:17 pm   Searching