`Reader's Digest''s Hidden History--Part 2

(The following article originally appeared in the October 27, 1993 issue of the now-defunct alternative Lower East Side weekly, Downtown. Between 2007 and its 2011 bankruptcy, Reader’s Digest was owned by Citigroup board member Tim Collins’ Ripplewood Holdings’ private investment/leveraged buy-out firm. See below for part 1 of article).

Theirs Was The Kingdom by John Heidenry also observed in 1993 that “in the late 60’s the Reader’s Digest editor-in-chief"—Hobert Lewis—“walked into the office of treasurer Dick Waters, accompanied by two men whom he introduced as agents of the CIA,” when the CIA wanted to put some of its agents on the Reader’s Digest payroll in Peru, and “Waters agreed to go along with the plan.” The same book also revealed that a consultant to the U.S. Senate’s Church Committee, which investigated CIA misconduct, “suspected that the Reader’s Digest had at least the appearance of an institutional relationship with the CIA and was involved in four areas of intelligence gathering: photography…; editorial research for articles that were never printed; market research and polls; and special projects.”

According to Theirs Was The Kingdom, Reader’s Digest was charged by some Italian critics of launching an Italian edition, Selezione del Reader’s Digest in 1948, “in direct response to widespread fears that Italy would fall to the Communists” in its 1948 elections; and of letting its Italian edition be utilized “as a conduit for anti-Communist propaganda originating from…both the American and the European intelligence communities,” under the editorial direction of a former British intelligence officer named Terrence Harmon. These same Italian critics also charged that “the 1948 Italian campaign marked the first time the Central Intelligence Agency…got involved in large-scale political propaganda,” according to the same book.

In Chile, Reader’s Digest was also apparently utilized by the CIA to help create favorable conditions for the Chilean military’s 1973 overthrow of the democratically-elected Allende regime. Theirs Was The Kingdom stated the following:

“When…Salvadore Allende was elected president of Chile in 1970, according to Landis, the Digest sent a reporter to remote areas of the country to investigate industrial accidents in the country’s copper mines. Previously, a Finnish newspaper had accused a Digest employee of being a CIA agent for taking photographs of a copper mine. Though the reporter’s research never resulted in a published article, the CIA soon afterward organized a strike among Chile’s copper workers…”

(end of part 2)

(Downtown 10/27/93)

`Reader's Digest''s Hidden History--Part 1

(The following article originally appeared in the October 27, 1993 issue of the now-defunct alternative Lower East Side weekly, Downtown. Between 2007 and  2009 bankruptcy, Reader’s Digest was owned by Citigroup board member Tim Collins’ Ripplewood Holdings’ private investment/leveraged buy-out firm.)

“…The Atlantic Journal, in a series on CIA infiltration of the media, noted that in the fifties and sixties Time-Life Inc. had enjoyed an extremely close relationship with the intelligence agency. But now some CIA watchers saw the Reader’s Digest `as gradually achieving that “most favored’ status granted by the CIA’—John Heidenry in Theirs Was The Kingdom: Lila and DeWitt Wallace and The Story of the `Reader’s Digest’ in 1993

“Perhaps the most important fact about the Digest is that it isn’t a digest. It buys and `plants’ articles to suit the views of its owner, in other publications, thus spreading bias and prejudice—and I believe I proved, native fascism and even pro-Nazi propaganda—throughout the magazine press of America…Being the largest circulating publication in the world, it manipulates the minds of many millions of people.

“In the course of decades all these charges have been proved and documented…”—George Seldes in Never Tire Of Protesting in 1968

In his 1957 book Of Lasting Interest, James Wood noted that “There is evidence that the Digest has more than once helped implement United States foreign policy in various parts of the world.” One way Reader’s Digest has apparently helped to “implement United States foreign policy" has been to secretly collaborate with the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]. According to the Theirs Was The Kingdom: Lila and DeWitt Wallace and The Story of the `Reader’s Digest’ book by John Heidenry, “The Reader’s Digest Association [RDA] enjoyed an intimate relationship with the agency perhaps unmatched by any other major American communications giant, with the exception of Time-Life” and “as the country and the world entered the Cold War era, the Digest was to become…a highly valuable propaganda outlet for both the CIA and, to a lesser extent, the Federal Bureau of Investigation…” The same book also noted that Reader’s Digest’s Washington bureau “has been serving as a primary conduit for CIA and FBI propaganda, self-promotion, and disinformation since the days of Allen Dulles and J. Edgar Hoover” and that its roving editor in the Washington bureau—John Barron—had “close ties to the FBI and CIA.”

Barron was “the man who usually handled Soviet defectors in the media once they had been thoroughly debriefed by the CIA and were good only for propaganda purposes,” according to Theirs Was The Kingdom. The same book also recalled that “over the years the Digest’s bylines on espionage-related activities amounted to a veritable Who’s Who of CIA upper management and fellow-traveling journalists…” (end of part 1)

(Downtown 10/27/93)

Who Rules NPR?

If you weren't one of the 10,000 folk music fans who could afford the ticket price for the 50th anniversary Newport Folk Festival event, you can still listen to the kind of music that was performed there by checking out the National Public Radio [NPR] website at the following link at:

http://www.npr.org/music/newportfolk/index2.html

Ironically, NPR's board of directors apparently includes some of the same corporate folks who have been profiting in recent years from the Pentagon's endless war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Wall Street banking industry's financially reckless business practices which helped drive the global economy into a world-wide depression during the last year. NPR Chairman of the Board Howard Stevenson, for example, is also a director of the Camp Dresser & McKee firm that was given some lucrative Pentagon Iraq and Afghanistan war contracts a few years ago, according to the Center for Public Integrity's website.

Other profit-oriented corporations to which members of NPR's board of directors have been affiliated with in recent years include the Baupost LLC investment company, Landmark Communications, Sheffield Steel, The Northern Trust Company/Northern Trust Global Investment, Lincoln International, JP Morgan Securities, the DailyMc In. media firm, AOL Latin America, the Cisneros Group media companies, First Energy Corporation of Akron, the Key Corp and NYTimes.Com.

So don't expect NPR to start allowing many of its NPR affiliated stations to begin airing too many anti-war and anti-corporate protest folk songs on a daily basis (especially all the anti-war and anti-corporate protest folk songs written by folk musicians since 1970), even though we're all still stuck in the current 21st-century historical era of "permanent war abroad and global economic depression" under the current undemocratic political set-up of Big Corporate Media Monopolization of the U.S. radio airwaves.

African-American Female Worker Jobless Rate Under Obama Regime: 13.1 Percent

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for African-American female workers over 20 years-of-age under the Democratic Obama Regime jumped from 11.7 to 13.1 percent between June and July 2009; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for African-American male workers over 20 years-of age was still 16.1 percent in July 2009, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all African-American workers (which also takes into account the jobless rate for African-American youth between 16 and 19 years of age) increased from 15.3 to 15.9 percent between June and July 2009.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white female workers over 20-years-of age also increased from 7.1 to 7.6 percent between June and July 2009. For all women workers in the United States over 16 years of age, the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate increased from 8.9 to 9.2 percent between June and July 2009.

Between June and July 2009, the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Hispanic or Latina women workers over 20 years of age increased from to 11.5 to 11.8 percent, while the “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Hispanic or Latino male workers over 20 years of age increased from 10.7 to 11.2 percent. For all Hispanic or Latino workers over 16 years of age (which takes into account the jobless rate for Latino youth), the official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate increased from 12.1 to 12.5 percent between June and July 2009. The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Asian-American workers also increased from 8.2 to 8.3 percent between June and July 2009.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ August 7, 2009 press release:

“Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in July (-247,000)…

“In July, the number of unemployed persons was 14.5 million. The unemployment rate was 9.4 percent…

“The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose by 584,000 over the month to 5.0 million. In July, 1 in 3 unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more…

“The number of persons working part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed in July at 8.8 million…

“About 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force…These individuals…wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey…

“Among the marginally attached, there were 796,000 discouraged workers in July…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them….

“Employment in construction declined by 76,000 in July…

“Manufacturing employment fell by 52,000 in July…

“In July, retail trade employment declined by 44,000…Employment in wholesale trade fell by 19,000 in July, with the majority of the decline occurring among durable goods wholesalers.

“Employment in professional and business services continued to trend down in July (-38,000)…Within professional and business services, employment in the temporary help industry edged down in July…

“Transportation and warehousing lost 22,000 jobs in July…

“Financial activities employment continued to trend down in July (-13,000)…Employment in information declined by 16,000 in July, including losses in Publishing and telecommunications….”

`Folk Revolution' lyrics

(chorus)
For years we’ve all been slaves
Trapped in the Age of Rock
But can’t you see the dawn
As we enter the Age of Folk?

(verses)
They’ve pushed their loveless music
And pounded their soulless drums
They expect us to live like robots
And obey their Pentagon
They’ve poisoned the minds of rockers
And made some slaves think they’re free
But it’s time for the Folk Revolution
And time to end Rock Tyranny. (chorus)

They’ve stolen to the tune of millions
And tried to drown us in the sea
Their ugliness is what they call beauty
And they don’t want equality
They’re a bunch of moral cowards
A decadent aristocracy
But it’s time for the Folk Revolution
To create the world of your dreams. (chorus)

Every folk person shall be an artist
And by day all folk will have liberty
Love and peace will rule the world
And equal will be all who breathe
No one man will be the top dog
And folk will no more be lonely
All folk will own the world in common
Folk Revolution is the key. (chorus)

The “Folk Revolution” protest folk song was written in the 1980s to protest against the corporatization of rock music and against the hip rock capitalism of the 1980s. In retrospect, I probably overestimated the revolutionary potential of folk music as a tool for revolutionary democratic social change and I probably underestimated the revolutionary potential of rock music.

To listen to some other protest folk songs, you can check out the “Columbia Songs for a Democratic Society” music site at the following link:

http://www.myspace.com/bobafeldman68music

`Hands Off Iran' lyrics

(chorus)
The martyrs killed by Savak
Killed by U.S. machines
The martyrs shot down in the streets
Gave their lives so Iran could be free.
The martyrs killed in war
Plotted by the C.I.A.
The blood of all the martyrs
Is on the hands of the U.S.A.

(verses)
The criminal U.S. banks still try to rule Iran
Their murderous C.I.A. draw up invasion plans
And that is why the people from Berkeley to Boston
Must tell the U.S. government: "Hands off Iran!" (chorus)

Exxon and Texaco want the Persian Gulf oil
And they don't care how many young people they must kill
And that is why the workers from Berkeley to Boston
Must tell the U.S. government: "Hands off Iran!" (chorus)

ABC it lies each day and every night
It tries to poison minds so Big Business can dominate
And that is why the students from Berkeley to Boston
Must tell the U.S. government: "Hands off Iran!" (chorus)

The "Hands Off Iran!" anti-war protest folk song was written in 1980. For more protest folk songs from the 1970s and 1980s, you can check out the following music site link:

http://www.myspace.com/bobafeldman68music

Time For Some More Protest Folk Songs?

If you feel like listening to some protest folk songs that you're not likely to hear over the corporate media monopolies' radio airwaves, you might want to check out an anti-war protest folk site.