Exhibit 853 ยท Magazine article
The CIA and the Media (Carl Bernstein), Rolling Stone, with the magazine's press release (copy in the National Security Archive)
journalists secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to documents on file at CIA headquarters.
Reports, from interviews with more than 35 current and former CIA officials and from Senate staff, that more than 400 American journalists carried out assignments for the CIA over 25 years and that at least 25 news organizations provided cover. Reports that William Colby told Church Committee staff to go to the managements of news organizations, which he said were witting, and alleges that the Committee played down the extent of the relationships after CIA lobbying. Names executives and columnists as having cooperated; some named persons denied or minimized this.
- Source
- Rolling Stone (author Carl Bernstein)
- Date
- 20 October 1977
- Quoted from
- Rolling Stone press release, p. 1 (OCR copy; the clause is the release's wording of Bernstein's count of more than 400 in 25 years)
- Grade
- Reported
- Document
- https://archive.org/details/nsia-BernsteinRollingStoneArticlesCIA
- Accessed
- 2026-11-09
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit
- Note
- Church Book I counts about 50 relationships as of February 1976; the figures cover different periods and definitions.