"Bought Journalism" Update

‘Bought Journalism’: German bestseller reveals payoffs to reporters

On September 27, 2014, Ersjdamoo’s Blog reported on a bestselling book in Germany, Bought Journalism, by Udo Ulfkotte. He is a veteran reporter, who wrote for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Ulfkotte comes clean and admits he was secretly on the payroll of U.S. intelligence. “The author admits having received money from U.S. intelligence services in return for focusing upon various topics from a certain point of view, and denounces that, thanks to this type of practice, more than a few of the German news outlets have been converted into NATO propaganda branches.” (Background: “Bought Journalism” in Germany, Ersjdamoo’s Blog, September 27, 2014.)

Ersjdamoo has searched in vain for any reports in the English-language press about Ulfkotte’s defection from the secret propaganda network. There seems to be a total news blackout in the West on what is now big news in Germany. Eager to find out more about what Ulfkotte has to say, I tried a wild approach to getting more information. I (unfortunately) do not know the German language. But maybe the “Google Translate” could get me past that (I guessed). So I did a Google web search on “Gekaufte Journalisten” and then located the “translate this” portion of some results. Thus, much of my sources for what follows depends on the “Google Translate.”

This month’s bestseller in Germany called “Gekaufte Journalisten” or “Bought Journalists” in English uncovers the practice of journalists being paid money to distort particular news stories.

Christian Döring, a “Hall of Fame Reviewer” at the German amazon.de site, writes, “Ever since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict I wondered often, who owns the journalists on the many channels who tell me all the absolute truth?”

“Frightening is reading that the author not only describes individual cases, but a whole system exposes. He calls a spade a spade.”

Elsewhere (not at the Deutsch amazon), Christian Marschall writes, “Ulfkotte, born in 1960, is a thoroughbred journalist. He wrote to the forefront of the mainstream media, many years for the FAZ [Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung], later for Gruner + Jahr.”

Quoting from Ulfkotte’s book, Marschall adds, “‘Our Alpha journalists have a total blackout (…) Very close there seem to be no more’, so it sounds from the first page.”

Another source, computer-translated, reads, “Naturally dominant mass media react sometimes by silence it. They are afraid because their lies skeleton loses substance daily. Nothing was as it once was, people fear global war driving, want to prevent a new world war, including Udo Ulfkotte with his new book consistently contributes.”

Well, enough with the painful translations. Anyone themselves can do what I did to get past the censorship: Web search on “Gekaufte Journalisten” then hit the translate button.

“The information war for Ukraine” – Satirical German program “Die Anstalt” (Eng Subs)

There are some English-language blogs which have done their own digging into the Ulfkotte book’s major shock in Germany. Project Avalon reports how Bought Journalism is “on the top of Amazon’s bestseller list in the German politics section. Reaction by the mainstream? Utter silence.” Project Avalon includes a satirical clip (hopefully embedded above) which is “a good illustration of what’s happening in the German media in regard to the Ukraine situation…” Allegedly, a secret meeting of publishers in Frankfurt has agreed that whoever brings up Ulfkotte’s book in the editorial offices will be put on an exit list. [1]

In his book, Bought Journalism, journalist Udo Ulfkotte comes forward about being paid by members of the CIA to “lie, to betray and to not tell the truth to the public,” during his 25-year career as a journalist in Germany, reports Alexandra Bruce at ForbiddenKnowledgeTV. [2]

The DeepResource blog gives some names of other alleged “bought journalists” in Germany: Claus Cleber (“this is the worst character in the entire German television landscape”); Sabine Christiansen; and Kai Diekman (who apparently caters to the German “ditto-heads”). [3]

And Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, formerly Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, has this to say about Ulfkotte’s book: “There is nothing new about this except the extent. Always there have been media, reporters, and columnists who published false information in order to help the CIA advance undeclared agendas.” [4] (I however respectfully disagree with Paul Craig Roberts: What is new here is that Ulfkotte has publicly admitted his role.)

——- Sources ——-
[1] “‘Bought Journalism’: German bestseller reveals CIA pay Western media for spin & bias”, http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?75472-Bought-Journalism-German-bestseller-reveals-CIA-pay-Western-media-for-spin-bias
[2] “I Was Educated to Lie, to Betray and to Not Tell the Truth to the Public”, by Alexandra Bruce. ForbiddenKnowledgeTV, September 30, 2014. http://www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/videos/criminal-mainstream-media/bought-journalism-german-bestseller-revealscia-pays-media-for-spin–bias.html
[3] http://deepresource.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/bought-journalism/
[4] “German Journalist Reveals That The CIA Has Compromised The Western Media”, by Paul Craig Roberts, September 29, 2014. http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/09/29/german-journalist-reveals-cia-compromised-western-media/