'My object is to be of service to you': Carl Ackerman and the Wilson administration during World War I. Issue 6 (19th September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McCune, Meghan Menard; Hamilton, John Maxwell
• Is Part Of: Intelligence and national security. Volume 32:Issue 6(2017)
• Page Start: 743
• Page End: 757
• Publication Date: 2017-09-19
• Subjects: Espionage -- Periodicals; Intelligence service -- Periodicals; National security -- Periodicals; 327.12
• DOI: 10.1080/02684527.2017.1294643
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0268-4527

Abstract

Abstract: The press was outraged in the 1970s when investigations exposed the CIA's use of American journalists as undercover informants during the Cold War. This was treated as a shocking break in the traditional line between journalism and government. A study of journalist Carl W. Ackerman's activities in the Great War, however, reveals such cooperation had precedents. While reporting oversees, Ackerman, later dean of Columbia Journalism School, worked behind the scenes with officials to shape and promote the Wilson administration's foreign policy. This paper is a first step to understanding that pervasive, close relationships between journalists and government were well established at the beginning of the twentieth century.