Presstitutes Embedded in the Pay of the CIA: A Confession from the Profession

As everybody who's been following the matter knows, this book's original German-language edition was a bestseller in its author's homeland. This despite a mainstream media blackout on its very existence.The really interesting question is what happened to the original English translation *Journalists for Hire* supposedly available but only for people willing to fork over almost $1,000 for a copy. What I've heard through the grapevine is that orders for that edition ended up cancelled because somehow copies were never available. (If anyone sees this and was able to obtain one, post a comment and I will allow myself to stand corrected.)No rational person can deny that this book was suppressed. Going well beyond Herman & Chomsky's well known treatise on *Manufacturing Consent*, *Presstitutes* contains clearly documented evidence of how intelligence agencies, especially the American CIA, and other powerful, elite-controlled organizations control mass media through the power of the purse (one might call it). Ulfkotte layers on the details of his experience within the German media, especially newspapers. *Presstitutes* being a confessional work, he doesn't deny that he was eyeball-deep in taking payoffs from elite-controlled organizations to report events in specific ways, especially if they involved foreign policy, and even more if they involved the Middle East. He names a lot (though not all) names. His book has over 30 pages of endnotes and other documentation for his claims. The implications for Western media as a whole, especially in the English-speaking world, speak for themselves.Udo Ulfkotte has done for Western journalism what John Perkins did for our understanding of how economic development in so-called developing nations really works in his bestselling *Confessions of an Economic Hit Man*. And then some! Among Ulfkotte's targets prior to writing this whistleblowing blockbuster was the open borders mindset that has prevailed in Germany, as throughout the EU, leading to mass migrations especially of Muslims. Result: entire areas are no longer safe for native populations. Both government and mainstream media have refused to report this due to the political correctness epidemic. Their voices declare anyone who speaks out to be a racist or white supremacist.Ulfkotte, following a 17-year career in mainstream German media including paid travels to 60 countries, spent the final years of his life blacklisted within his profession but still trying to expose the truth for anyone who would listen. And he passed away from what we are told was a heart attack at a very young age, a week before he would have turned 57. This was after death threats, episodes where his home and office were searched six times by authorities, on top of litigation efforts. I've not run across hard evidence that Ulfkotte was murdered, but let's just say we're in no position to close the book on the possibility because clearly *Presstitutes* says and documents a lot of things powerful people don't want generally known.Thus efforts abound to portray Ulfkotte as a nutty, far-right "conspiracy theorist" (example: Wikipedia), the weaponized phrase used to turn readers away from documented claims of elite-sponsored, top-down malfeasance of this sort on a large scale. I'd grab a copy of *Presstitutes* while I could. Progressive is a small press, and there's no good reason to think this edition is going to be around, and affordable, for very long.

This expose of Western journalism (the author is German) reads much like the insider view of the global neoliberal financial system "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins. It is an insider's look at how the Western press operates in tandem with powerful elite interests and the intelligence community to manipulate public opinion in the direction those forces would have it go, rather than providing honest unbiased "news reporting." For anyone attempting to better understand our propaganda systems this book is an excellent addition to "Manufacturing Consent," by Chomsky & Herman, and to "Taking the Risk Out Of Democracy," by Alex Carey.

The mainstream media feed us nothing less than misinformation, lies, and spun news on a daily basis. Unfortunately there are no journalists left in the MSM who are fair and honest or even believing anything they utter. Societies are unable to be guided in the right path when its citizens are misinformed and paid to color the news.This book sheds the light on today’s mass media and its role in supporting corporations and governments and particularly, theMilitary industrial complex.

A must-read for anyone who thinks for themselves. Mark Twain is often quoted: “If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.” Udo Ulfkotte explains exactly why this is and how it is done. Kudos to the publisher for getting this important book translated into English. Reading it will make you a much more critical viewer of "the news".

German journalist breaks ranks to tell the truth about how the CIA and other intelligence agencies put journalists on the payroll to control what they write. Pretty amazing stuff.

I read the book cover-to-cover. Ulfkotte tells the story of pervasive corruption of the media through the simple process of grooming by the intelligence agencies about what really matters and how to write, coupled with rich rewards and bribes from the powers-that-be (e.g., a murderous Arab head-of-state buys Udo private diving lessons by flying in a top instructor from France and Udo reciprocates with glowing praise in his article). He helps explain why these foul reporters can often maintain a belief in their own independence and integrity while functioning as servile lackeys. Ulfkotte lists in great detail the elite political organizations that train such journalists and explains that to remain an elite journalist of this feather one must toe the party line. Otherwise one is reassigned, one's memberships are cancelled, and one is on the outs. Real journalists with integrity never belong to such inner circles of power. As a rule of thumb, Ulfkotte advises that if you must pay for news, it is already fouled and distorted by whoever makes the money from your purchases. The only possibly reliable news comes from free sources.Ulfkotte's crisis of conscience came when a politician asked him to dig up dirt on a rival as though this were part of his job as a panderer, but his primary concern was that for over a decade he had been forced to peddle a phony narrative of Russian aggression that, he realized, threatened annihilating war. He decided to become an honest journalist and did so. He had two more scathing books exposing corruption planned--he says what they are in this book--and he died prematurely at 56 of a heart attack before either could be written, also preventing him from shepherding this book into an English translation. A very convenient death for the Powers that Be.What Ulfkotte does not know about and does not write about are the CIA operatives embedded in the media who are not at all self-deceived about what they do but are there to cover-up major covert operations by false reports in real time, e.g., Dan Rather's report that JFK's head "went forward with considerable violence." This is not a major lapse and the book is an eye-opener for the uninitiated and a good read for someone like myself who already knows the story. The book suffers from too much repetition and an an ungainly writing style that I suspect is not entirely due to the translator's efforts, but these are minor faults.

This book is worth buying - if not for other reasons - just for its title, which perfectly translates what the professional of the main stream media and press has become nowadays.

If you want to know "what's really going on" in the media this book will help understand how the media works with corporations, government agencies and influencers. Though it's based on German media it's clear that what happens there is more of the same for the rest of the world, east-west, democracy-communism.IMO required reading for all those who are in media and want to be in media

The dishonesty in the media and politics is very obvious to me. I really want to find some truthfulness somewhere. Unfortunately Mr Ulfkotte had more agenda when he wrote this 'confession' then he let on. While the details seems mainly to exposing an industry that was, and still is, rotten to the core. I have no doubt from what I have seen from the 'news' they report. However, Mr Ulfkotte had his own (or someone else's ) agenda to serve while writing this book. Once to get to the second half of the book that became crystal clear. I'm not sure I'm more disgusted by that or by the corruption that he exposed. (And can believe in everything he had written?) He's still lying in this book to influence like he ever was when he was a professional journalist. Just like his colleagues still do in the industry.I think having an open mind and critical thinking is very important to approach this kind of work in order not to be used to serve yet another political agenda. In my humble opinion we need to start thinking outside of politics to see the solutions.

An insider reveals the truth behind the manipulated media, particularly in Germany, but reflected throughout the western world. truth about world events, it seems, is tightly controlled and regulated. Naturally this is not highlighted on mainstream media, being dismissed as "conspiracy theory", rather than as conspiracy fact.