‘Covert Influence Activities Are Not Journalism’
Most missed this post from September 14, 2024 – it’s vitally important to it read today, to help cut through confusion over what is journalism and what are tools of war to overthrow democracies
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“Covert influence activities are not journalism.”—U.S. State Department, September 13, 2024
The post below was originally published September 14, 2024 — 10 days after the bombshells documenting Russian interference globally and exposing domestic Russian subcontractors.
I am republishing it today so you can memorize the six words we were gifted by the U.S. State Department under President Biden when correcting people on the difference between journalism and tools of war.
Here they are once again:
“Covert influence activities are not journalism.”
Currently, French citizens are fighting back against the platforming of a former RT director — RT was banned in France — who was hired by a pro-Russian media mogul, who I spotlight here:
Despite propagandists insisting it’s a free speech issue, French people have the advantage of seeing what has happened in the U.S. when you give hostile foreign nations direct access to your citizens and they are pushing for the RT director’s expulsion.
In Ireland, Steve Bannon is being exposed for exploiting divisions through media. That is foreign influence — not journalism.
In Germany, the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations party, the home of the pro-Russian extremists Alternative for Germany, could be outlawed for failing to uphold EU values.
Politico reported that the Brussels-based “watchdog that oversees European political parties triggered a process that could result in the ESN being stripped of its right to be a political party and losing its funding… The watchdog monitors whether political parties and foundations comply with the EU that rules require parties to uphold the Union’s core values — including “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights, including the rights of minorities” — as enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union.”
In an accompanying 300-page letter, the watchdog spotlights Bulgaria’s Revival, saying it cooperates openly with Putin’s United Russia party, as well as accusing it of being behind violent protests in Sofia and attacks against the European Commission delegation in February 2025.
The letter also highlights a decision by the German intelligence services in May 2025 to classify the AfD party as a right-wing extremist organization.
I am prefacing my original post with these global operations because we are going to see an increase in foreign influence activities as elections approach — and we will also hear the likes of JD Vance calling it “freedom of speech” — which is an obfuscation of the war for our minds.
Finally, a friend sent me a publication by the Harvard Law Review that can only be interpreted as obfuscation. Its authors concluded that Douglass Mackey, who was sent to prison for interfering with the 2016, was dealt a miscarriage of justice citing 1A. Mackey was part of a vast covert influence operation and all you have to do is look at his defenders — a long list of billionaire criminals — to see this had nothing to do with journalism.
We knew better two years ago — when we were gifted the six words to cut through the propaganda. Since then, the U.S. has invited the propagandists to the White House.
I hope the world takes a lesson from what we missed.
Here is my original brief from September 2024:
TUMBLEWEED BLUES: ‘Covert Influence Activities Are Not Journalism’
And other things I’ve learned in four decades of being an investigative reporter
Finally, the words arrived.
Six perfect words.
Six perfect words to cut through the noisy mob of billionaires, felons, and useful idiots.
The US State Department must have a helluva writer on its team to have summed up in six words what a girl like I has written thousands of reports on — that we are under attack and the attacks are ongoing. The weapon’s grade psychological warfare targeting our nation has nothing to do with free speech and everything to do with subverting truth, reality, and our ability to defend and cherish our democracy.
“Accurate information is vital to the health of any democracy... When state or non-state actors spread disinformation, material deliberately meant to deceive or divide our public, they attack the very foundations of our free and open society.”—Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, September 13, 2024
As Antony Blinken explained yesterday, RT — Russia Today — is tied to Russian intelligence, and the operations produced by Russian intelligence services is not journalism and in fact, linked directly to Russian military activities.
As you know, I have written comprehensively on information laundering, so to hear those words come from the Secretary of State was meaningful to me. Here are his remarks in their entirety:
Last night, I spent time with a family member who was watching a 1994 film called The Paper, an all-star cast directed by Ron Howard.
It was a nostalgic look back for me of an industry that no longer exists: the newspaper business, pre-interweb.
I reflected on all the newsrooms I’ve been in — from the Point Reyes Light, to the Los Angeles Times, to Fox 11 News, to Al Jazeera America, to Byline Times, and a million magazines and publications in between.
I am a relic from another era, when journalists got into the business like firefighters and cops, to serve and protect.
Billionaire-funded, hedge fund, and corporate media does not serve and protect the people — their products are, at best, simp rags for oligarchs, at worst, sleeping with the enemy.
The Tumbleweed Blues
I recall the moment I looked around a once vibrant newsroom that had bustled with life and energy, where smart people did their best to outwit the bean counters in the front office so truth could make air, and I got an acute case of the tumbleweed blues. All I saw was dead air — a metaphorical tumbleweed blowing through a desolate wasteland.
Oh well. Here we are.
I am now an army of ever fewer, typing in defense of democracy, 40 years of experience, using my words to the best of my ability to cut through the lies, a P.I. for the people, praying we keep this ship afloat…
“Our most powerful antidote to Russia’s lies is the truth. It’s shining a bright light to what the Kremlin is trying to do under the cover of darkness.”—Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, September 13, 2023
… in service of truth, which I desperately believe in.
Originally published September 14, 2024.
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