60 Minutes got a huge scoop this weekend (10/27/13)—the first-ever TV interview with Mike Morell, the man who just finished a long term as a high-ranking CIA official. But if you thought the CBS newsmagazine was going to pose some tough questions, think again.
From the introduction by CBS correspondent John Miller, viewers should have known this wasn’t going to be a tough interview. Miller explained that Morell’s tenure covered some key moments in US history, from the 9/11 attacks to the Obama era. And Morell wanted to talk—apparently about certain things more than others:
Mike Morell was deputy director of the CIA and gave us the only television interview he’s ever done. He spoke to us, largely because he believes the very nature of the spy business keeps successes in the shadows, but often pushes failure into the bright lights.
Now, the reasons why Morell would want to do an interview shouldn’t much matter—a journalist gets to raise questions regardless, especially ones about government “failures.” But the CBS interview was more like a press briefing than an interview with a powerful figure who has never been asked questions by a TV journalist.
The segment started with Morell giving his views on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden:
MORELL: I do not believe he was a whistleblower. I do not believe he is a hero. I think he has betrayed his country.
MILLER: How serious a hit is that to national security?
MORELL: I think this is the most serious leak—the most serious compromise of classified information in the history of the U.S. intelligence community.
Finally, someone got a government official to say Snowden isn’t a whistleblower!
And just why was this leak so serious?
MILLER: Because of the amount of it or the type?
MORELL: Mm-hm. The amount and the type.
Glad that pressing question could finally be answered.
Morell and Miller did explain that Snowden’s leak of the CIA’s budget was especially damaging—because “they could focus their counterintelligence efforts on those places where we’re being successful”:
MILLER: Kind of like handing over the playbook to the other team?
MORELL: Uh-huh.
It’s hard to know exactly why the public being aware of the CIA’s intelligence budget is such a grave threat. But since the CBS interviewer seemed to agree with his subject, that’s where things were left.
When asked if he would refer to US interrogation techniques as “torture” if they were used against Americans, Morell responded, “I actually, John, want to challenge you on the word torture”—challenge him on asking a question about the word, presumably, since Miller himself pointedly did not use the term to describe methods used by the US that clearly include torture. But Morell offered that some post-9/11 not-torture techniques “were inconsistent with American values.” Miller seemed proud of that damage-controlling admission: “No top CIA official has ever said that before.”
And then Morell went on to praise drone strikes:
This is a very precise weapon. Collateral damage is very low. It’s not zero, I wish it was. But it is as close to zero as we have gotten with any weapons system in the history of this country.
Miller sets up that comment by noting that “the UN and others have said they have also caused hundreds of civilian fatalities”—which was about the most adversarial moment of the broadcast.
Morell admitted that the Iraq intelligence failures were a problem:
I think that my biggest mistake was not in scrubbing that analysis more closely…. What we really learned from that experience was that analysts need to think about their confidence level and to be very, very clear with policy makers about it.
That’s not exactly an earth-shattering admission, and one that in a normal interview might elicit some followups. Why was the intelligence not “scrubbed”? Was there political pressure to reach certain conclusions? But on 60 Minutes, it was treated as a lesson learned.
Why was the interview set up this CIA-friendly way? It might have something to do with the interviewer.
John Miller is a longtime reporter. But he has had other jobs, too; in 2003, he left journalism to work for the LAPD, and then took a job as the assistant director of public affairs at the FBI, a job that involved managing “relations with the news media.”
So perhaps Morell went to Miller and 60 Minutes for his first-ever TV interview because he knew what he was going to get.
Yet another “sweetheart” interview conducted by the usual corporate mediacrats designed to garner ratings and advance a Bernaysian agenda, nothing more.
As a rule, no matter what questions he gets the typical subject, well-versed in “objective media/steno interviews”–like a kung fu master who uses his opponent’s force to throw him down– “shifts” the question by selecting a word or two in the question then proceeds to deliver his “message” by repeating the few selected words. Thus, the illusion of an answer is created. All the interviewer–and the conned viewer–got was a response and a well-crafted message for public consumption.
Ho-hum.
Ever since Reagan administration did away with the Fairness Doctrine, the owners of corporate media who use our nationalized airwaves can dish out whatever message their profiteering little hearts desire. And no opposing view even gets aired (or mentioned) to challenge any statement/idea that the guest wishes to deliver.
Next.
Call it a POS on the CIA (and by extension, the NSA, the FBI, the DOD and all the other ingredients in the toxic soup of “national security”).
But I guess it did save us taxpayers a bit of green to have CBS pick up the tab for this PR.
JFC …
Well, Mike Morell, is not the only ex-CIA official who thinks Edward Snowden betrayed his country, even though Snowden doesn’t have dual citizenship as most of neocons have.
On Friday, former CIA director (2006-2009), Gen. Michael Hayden, told Jewish Newsmax that though NSA spying on world leaders is “terribly damaging” – but they’re “lawful, effective and appropriate”.
http://rehmat1.com/2013/10/27/gen-hayden-supports-nsa-spying-on-world-leaders/
Nothing NEW Since ’62.
by the title of this article, I thought this might be about bob schieffer’s
report about the jfk assassination which he had on last sunday!
apparently they still want us to believe that Oswald was responsible.
it was quite a remarkable report, and I wanted to see how fair would critique it. I think they used every trick for propaganda, i’m not sure. anyone have anything interesting to say about that cbs work for the cia? ( only if that was what it might have been, of course )
on this morell interview, what can we say when the cia puts it out to defend torture and to condemn public information about our privacy being totally stolen by god knows who? it’s UNBELIEVABLE! and outrageous.
but I love the picture here again. see how the word intelligence swoops over his head like a halo. see how his profile is as remarkable as the very serious and majestic American eagle behind him? i’m not sure which profile is more impressive! his or “our” eagle’s!! I think it’s scary, which is probably how they want it. : L c. b.s.? oh dear.
this was supposed to be a scared- look face : L
then , c. b.s. ?
and on the shield, in the picture….. is that the sign for nato?
: 0
I was not expecting one of our top “spooks” to go on national TV and stumble, as he dumped his guts to some reporter.Did you?There is an old saying nothing ventured nothing gained.Nothing was gained in this case.And the reporter seemed to realize it was not worth his effort
Miller did ask the right question but failed, as Socrates2 says,
to prevent Morell from “shifting the question” . Miller asked if US soldiers were captured and had the same interrogation techniques applied, would we consider it torture? Great question, never followed up on. History buffs should not that waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation” techiques were learned from the Japanese during WW2 and those found guilty of using it
were charged with war crimes and summarily executed . Hmmm…
When the CIA man referred to the deaths of innocent people as “collateral damage” and there was no followup question on this one knew immediately that this a puff piece. Imagine what Don Hewitt would have thought of this piece.
What can you expect for CBS News and 60 minutes? Look at the commercials. They appear to be financed by the drug companies and other large corporations. Does one really expect anything useful or honest.
If you find these kind of journalist accurate and responsible then you should consider yourself the finished product of manufactured consent.
Again Im going to bring up a fact no body is mentioning.Any fault the cIA has painted on them ,is painted primarily on one man…..THE PRESIDENT!They do EVERYTHING at his behest.It is like blaming the soldiers in the Mafia and never questioning the Don.As if they act on their own behalf.The CIA is an information sift….a conduit.The president makes the decisions on how to use that information.Any blame ,for anything should be put on him.Unless he has a renegade agency.Or unless the information they produce is flawed.
Please, waterboarding was used by Americans on Filipinos to defeat their struggle for an independent Philippines at the end of the Spanish-American war.