What happened with the CIA and The Paris Review?

Historical CIA–Media and CIA–Paris Review Links

• Commenters situate The Paris Review case within a long record of CIA ties to media: CIA‑owned or funded newspapers, “proprietaries” used as journalistic cover, and large-scale propaganda programs like Operation Mockingbird.
• Church and Pike Committee documents are cited as key sources on how deeply intelligence services penetrated news and cultural outlets.
• The Paris Review is seen as part of this ecosystem: a “non-political” literary venue co‑founded by a CIA officer, with later FOIA attempts yielding almost nothing, reinforcing a sense of deliberate secrecy and old‑boys‑network recruitment.

CIA, Culture, and Modern Art

• Several comments discuss CIA promotion of abstract expressionism, jazz, and elite art as Cold War soft power.
• There is disagreement over scope: some say the CIA “established” abstract expressionism and warped the whole humanities and art ecosystem; others argue it merely amplified existing movements for anti‑Soviet marketing.
• Comparisons are drawn to other state-backed cultural projects (K‑pop, “Cool Japan,” Hollywood–Pentagon collaboration).
• Some praise this as one of the CIA’s most effective investments, helping undermine the USSR; others mock this as overcrediting propaganda and note post‑communist nostalgia in parts of Eastern Europe.

Propaganda Mechanics vs. “Conspiracy Theory”

• Multiple threads contrast real, documented programs (COINTELPRO, MKULTRA, Mockingbird, Gladio) with more grandiose, speculative conspiracies.
• One camp emphasizes bureaucratic incentives and “nudging” existing trends rather than master plans; another stresses coordinated, long‑running efforts with clear goals and budgets.
• There’s agreement that modern tools—social media, algorithms, meme culture—enable far cheaper and more pervasive influence than Cold War arts funding.

Perceptions of American Propaganda

• Commenters from or referencing ex‑Eastern Bloc perspectives say US media propaganda is obvious once you’ve seen cruder Soviet versions; Americans, “like fish in water,” often don’t notice it.
• Examples include state-inflected magazines, patriotic school rituals, and “humanitarian” war narratives framed through women’s rights or freedom.

Ideology, “Apolitical” Claims, and Conformity

• The Review’s self-presentation as “apolitical” is framed as itself ideological: making dominant values feel like common sense.
• Analogies to fashion choices underline that “not choosing” (or claiming to be above ideology) is still a choice, often aligning with prevailing power.