Operation Mockingbird: Church Committee Senate hearing

Operation Mockingbird was an operation beginning in the 1950's in which the CIA recruited American journalists to spread propaganda throughout the western media networks. The recruited journalists were put on a payroll and instructed to write fake stories that promoted the views of the intelligence agency.

Mockingbird later expanded to include foreign media. Journalists were reportedly blackmailed and threatened into the network.

Reports of the operation eventually led to a series of congressional investigations in the 1970's under a committee set up by the US Senate named the 'Church Committee'.

The Church Committee investigations looked into government operations and abuses by the CIA, NSA, the FBI and IRS.