Intercept: LA Times Journalist Cleared Articles With CIA Before Publishing
National security reporter emailed drafts to agency for more government-friendly revisions
by Nadia Prupis
CommonDreams.com
Friday, September 05, 2014
A former Los Angeles Times national security journalist routinely sent drafts of his articles to CIA press handlers for input and revision, the Intercept revealed on Friday.
Email exchanges between Ken Dilanian and public relations officers at the agency were discovered after the Intercept sent a FOIA request to the CIA over its relationship with reporters. In many of the emails, Dilanian promised to provide the agency with positive coverage, often going so far as to change entire drafts of articles based on the CIA’s replies.
The Intercept writes:
[A]fter a series of back-and-forth emails about a pending story on CIA operations in Yemen, he sent a full draft of an unpublished report along with the subject line, “does this look better?” In another, he directly asks the flack: “You wouldn’t put out disinformation on this, would you?”…
[I]n June 2012, shortly after 26 members of congress wrote a letter to President Obama saying they were “deeply concerned” about the drone program, Dilanian approached the agency about [a] story that he pitched as “a good opportunity” for the government.
The Rest…HERE
