Is Operation Mockingbird Confirmed? What CIA Files and the Church Committee Show

Short answer: is Operation Mockingbird confirmed? The name is confirmed, but not the story most people attach to it. CIA files confirm a Project MOCKINGBIRD in 1963 that wiretapped two Washington columnists. Separately, the Senate's Church Committee confirmed that the CIA had relationships with dozens of American journalists. What no released record shows is a program called Mockingbird that steered the U.S. press. Here is how the pieces fit, and where the evidence stops.

What the CIA's own files confirm

In 1973, CIA Director James Schlesinger ordered staff to report activities that might be outside the agency's charter. The result, about 700 pages known as the "Family Jewels," was released in 2007 and is now in the CIA reading room. One entry describes Project MOCKINGBIRD:

"Project Mockingbird, a telephone intercept activity, was conducted between 12 March 1963 and 15 June 1963, and targeted two Washington-based newsmen who, at the time, had been publishing [classified materials]."

The two columnists were Robert S. Allen and Paul Scott. A CIA memo released later (and posted by MuckRock in 2018) says routine review of their syndicated column "developed indications that classified information, sometimes code word material," was the basis for many columns. The same file shows the taps picked up calls with members of Congress, and that the agency could not find written approval for the project. The Family Jewels say the Attorney General was aware; the later file shows CIA could find no record that he approved it.

So the documented Mockingbird is a leak investigation that spied on reporters. That is serious in its own right: warrantless surveillance of the press by an agency barred from domestic security work.

What Congress confirmed about the CIA and journalists

The second half of the story is real too, under different names. The Church Committee's 1976 final report found that about 50 American journalists or employees of U.S. media organizations had relationships with the CIA. The committee noted many were freelancers, stringers or staff abroad, and that the CIA also ran or funded media outside the U.S.

In October 1977, Carl Bernstein, of Watergate fame, reported in Rolling Stone ("The CIA and the Media") that more than 400 American journalists had carried out assignments for the CIA over 25 years, citing CIA documents and officials. Bernstein's number is larger than the Senate's and relied on sources who could not be checked publicly. Neither the Senate report nor Bernstein's article uses the name "Operation Mockingbird," as ABC News pointed out in 2024.

In February 1976, CIA Director George H. W. Bush announced the agency would no longer enter paid or contractual relationships with accredited U.S. news reporters.

Where the "media control" version comes from

The idea of Mockingbird as a vast program to run American newsrooms traces mostly to Deborah Davis's 1979 book Katharine the Great, about Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. Davis described an "Operation Mockingbird" built around Graham's husband Philip and CIA official Frank Wisner. Her publisher withdrew the first edition after a dispute. Historian David P. Hadley, in The Rising Clamor (University Press of Kentucky, 2019), argues that no program by that name ran the press, while documenting how the CIA did try to shape coverage.

A MuckRock review of released records put it directly: "There is no official record of MOCKINGBIRD being officially used as a cryptonym for a propaganda program."

The 2025 Gabbard claim

In summer 2025, posts claimed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had "confirmed" Operation Mockingbird never ended. Snopes reviewed her July 31 interview with Benny Johnson and found she spoke about intelligence officials leaking to undermine the administration, not about a named program. Her office did not clarify. That is not a confirmation either way.

Documented, inferred, or unproven?

Documented

• Project MOCKINGBIRD wiretapped two U.S. columnists in 1963.
• The CIA had relationships with about 50 U.S. journalists or media employees, per the Senate.
• The CIA funded or placed material in foreign media.

Reasonable inference

• The CIA tried to influence how U.S. outlets covered it. Hadley's research and the Church record support this.

Not supported by released records

• A named Operation Mockingbird controlling American newsrooms.
• That such a program runs today. No public document shows it, though secrecy means absence of records is not proof of absence.

Is it still legal for the CIA to use journalists?

Mostly not. A 1996 intelligence authorization law barred using U.S. journalists as intelligence agents, but it lets the President or the CIA Director waive the ban. Whether waivers have been used is not public.

Our view (opinion)

The documented record is damning enough without the myth: an agency tapped reporters to find leakers, and dozens of journalists had ties to it. Overstating it as a single named master program hands critics an easy rebuttal. Read alongside our pieces on MKUltra, the Operation Northwoods documents and Section 702 surveillance.

How to check this yourself

1. Search the CIA reading room for "Family Jewels" and read the Mockingbird entry.
2. Read the Church Committee Book I section on the CIA and the media.
3. Compare with Bernstein's article and note which claims rest on named documents.

Why the name and the story got merged

Part of the confusion is timing. The Church Committee's hearings, Bernstein's article and Davis's book all landed within about four years, and the Family Jewels stayed classified until 2007. For three decades the public had a dramatic name from a book and a set of confirmed but unnamed relationships from the Senate. They fused into one story. When the CIA finally released the Family Jewels, the actual Mockingbird turned out to be a different, narrower operation.

That does not mean the media-influence concern was baseless. The Church Committee itself warned about the agency's use of journalists, and the CIA's 1976 restrictions were a direct response. The accurate way to say it: the CIA used journalists and spied on journalists; "Operation Mockingbird" as a named media-control program is not confirmed by released records.

Sources

• CIA Reading Room, "The Family Jewels" collection: cia.gov/readingroom/collection/family-jewels
• CIA Reading Room, "Project Mockingbird" file (approved for release 2020): cia.gov
• MuckRock, "To Kill a MOCKINGBIRD" (Feb 28, 2018): muckrock.com
• U.S. Senate, Church Committee, Foreign and Military Intelligence, Book I, Report 94-755 (1976).
• Carl Bernstein, "The CIA and the Media," Rolling Stone, October 20, 1977.
• ABC News, on RFK Jr.'s Mockingbird claims (2024): abcnews.com
• Snopes, on Tulsi Gabbard and Operation Mockingbird (Aug 7, 2025): snopes.com
• David P. Hadley, The Rising Clamor (University Press of Kentucky, 2019).
• National Security Archive, "The CIA's Family Jewels": nsarchive2.gwu.edu

Frequently asked questions

Is Operation Mockingbird confirmed?

Partly. CIA records confirm a Project MOCKINGBIRD in 1963, a telephone wiretap on two Washington columnists. No declassified record or congressional report found so far uses the name for a program to control the U.S. press, although the Church Committee did confirm CIA relationships with journalists.

What was Project Mockingbird in the CIA Family Jewels?

The Family Jewels describe it as a telephone intercept from March 12 to June 15, 1963, targeting columnists Robert S. Allen and Paul Scott, who had been publishing classified information.

How many journalists worked with the CIA?

The Church Committee's 1976 report said about 50 American journalists or media employees had relationships with the CIA, many of them freelancers or stringers abroad. Carl Bernstein's 1977 Rolling Stone article put the number above 400, citing CIA sources.

Where did the idea of Operation Mockingbird as media control come from?

The media-control version was popularized by Deborah Davis in her 1979 book about Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. Historians such as David P. Hadley dispute that a program by that name ran the press.

Can the CIA still use journalists?

CIA policy since 1976 bars paid or contractual relationships with accredited U.S. journalists, and Congress wrote a similar limit into a 1996 intelligence law, but that law allows the President or the CIA Director to waive it.