One of the facts researchers run into while chasing down the printed facts about sightings and events is that the stories suddenly move from page one and serious consideration to a death amid the classifieds or ridiculed. Good stories, with strong witnesses, good evidence, and widespread interest are turned off leaving a gaping darkness. Usually, preceding this is a Air Force announcement or a statement by some higher up that serves to minimize the reports or witnesses.
"Operation Mockingbird" was an alleged project that was believed to have been born in the 1940's, was whispered about in the 1960's and carried the strong manipulation of what went into print in order to achieve a government objective.
It is known through various documents, files, and experiences of newspapers and the government during World War Two that "patriotic censorship" was in play. Mail was censored, news reports were controlled, and workers were warned by posters about the result of "loose lips." News reporters and editors were "leaned" on using patriotism to silence news when Japanese balloon bombs successfully made it all the way to North America. As a result, the death of people on a picnic was successfully hidden until post WW2.
When the "flying discs" show up in late 1946, and early 1947 a new era of patriotic censorship emerges. Stories of the "discs" and the "saucers" become a tug of war between freedom of the press and the obsessive secrecy demanded by military and politicians. The fears of these men in military and political leadership were transferred to the American peoples so often by paternalistic leaders was merely a projection of their own deep seated terrors about who might gain and use the atomic weapons created, how far any fifth columnist communist plans might have inserted themselves into American life, and a host of other dreads.
So, perhaps there was no actual operation mockingbird, but the mindset was there. So, accusations that the CIA utilized a network of some 25 organizations and 400 journalists does not seem totally impossible. The agencies alleged included: ABC, NBC, CBS, Time, Newsweek, AP, UPI, Washington Post, Reuters, Hearts Newspapers, Scripss-Howard and Coply News Service.
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