FBI In Our Newsrooms

Michael Stephen Levinson
Candidate for President

Dan Rather, former CBS News icon, was on an MSNBC cable show hosted by Tucker Carlson. Carlson's blabberifics regularly pontificate on the coming presidential race. Tucker hold his own rigid views, issue spins that barely qualify as news.

With decades a seasoned journalist, Rather was hesitant. He prefers genuine reporting. He did not appear comfortable engaging in Tucker's political blab. Rather plaintively remarked, "There's something wrong with the press, with our coverage. We aren't asking the right questions." Those weren't Rather's exact words, but that was the gist.

I am a candidate for president. My unique understanding of this Fourth Estate prob limb is reason to elect me. Dan Rather is correct, though he was unable to articulate what troubles both him and us, because we all feel it. There is something amiss with our Fourth Estate. Let me explain the how and why, driving Dan's chagrin, what he was unable to put his finger on, and part of my plan, as president, to make things right.

Once upon a time, on the eve of The Pentagon Papers publication, President Nixon, angry, and fit to be tied about the issue, summoned FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to the White House. Their conversation was not recorded. They quietly met in the Old Executive Office Building, actually in Nixon's preferred office, a sidewalk from the White House, where year round Nixon kept the fireplace burning.

The two had drinks. Nixon wanted to know what Hoover could do to stop future news events like the Pentagon Papers publication from ever reoccurring. Did Hoover have any plans for FBI to infiltrate newspapers with "their own people," getting onto editorial boards, to counter editorialists attacking the governmentŐs policies.

Hoover explained he was 100% with Nixon on that issue, and had an on-going campus operation with that in mind. To quell the growing anti-war movement on campus, Hoover explained, FBI had "their own people"- provocateurs smashing windows and trashing furniture.

This was a necessity, to convince reluctant university presidents that having new student governments, to replace the open voting polity governments' open mikes, used for non-stop anti-war rallies, was the only play for these hands off University presidents to make, to protect the millions of federal dollars coming their way.

In light of the revolutionary anti-government activities by Marxist Leninist students, the Vietnam war their excuse, new Student (government) Associations, not easily infiltrated by Marxists, more appealing to conservative student leaders instead of draft dodging long hairs, was a better idea for university student governance. Bureaucracy would save the furniture.

At the same time, as Hoover explained to Nixon, FBI was getting into school newspapers with their own people, the plan: get them admitted to grad schools for training as professional journalists. Upon graduation, they would be hired, their goal, greased with stipends on the side, the editorial boards of the daily papers. It was a long-term domestic counter intelligence program. There wasn't going to be any Pentagon Papers repeats. This press dilution would be a blessing for all our future presidents.

One of Hoover's targets was The Spectrum, "the official newspaper of the students" at State University of New York at Buffalo. There may've been other papers Hoover targeted, but The Spectrum at UB is the paper I'm most familiar with. Originally, anyone could join The Spectrum and write for it. At the end of the year the editors and staff held an annual meeting where all who worked on the paper had a voice and anyone, student member, or community person, could stand for editor-in-chief.

You wrote a letter to the editor, stating which editorship you thought you were made for. You stood before the full staff, and stated your case. Then you and whoever else sought the job went out in the hall. The staff discussed the candidates, and voted by paper ballot.

In 1970, at the height of student unrest, The Spectrum was top shelf, an award winning college newspaper. Coincidentally, Jack Anderson's Washington Merry Go Round was in the habit of taking on The Spectrum's graduating editors-in-chiefs for internships, another reason for J. Edgar Hoover, who hated Jack Anderson, to go after that paper.

Against this backdrop, a pre-law student, Dennis Arnold, managed to be voted in as the editor-in-chief, and Dennis decided, because the paper was so strong, he would "take the paper private." It operated in student space, in the student union, but under his tutelage the paper became a private educational purposes corporation, with by-laws created by the editor-in-chief. The corporate by-laws, governing The Spectrum, weren't voted for, or ratified; they were simply installed.

The By-laws began with chicken and the egg: "The business and affairs of The Spectrum shall be conducted by its members." "Membership Criteria: The membership shall consist of the editorial board, as designed and appointed by the chairman." You choose me, editor-in-chief. I'll appoint you sports editor and raise your stipend. The staff was cut out.

Within a few years The Spectrum was an unread, moribund waste of stew dent time, reflecting the editor's, not the school's issues. At first, the paper, coasting on its award winning reputation, was a stepping-stone into grad schools for its journalists. The editors used The Spectrum for building a resume´, and installed their chosen protege´ to carry on their policies. As fast as the writing talent dribbled down, so went the overall quality ofThe Spectrum. There wasn't any room for advancement unless you were the editor's friend. Enthusiastic incoming writers were always giving up and moving on.

Years later the corporate by-laws were brought to a university adminis traitor's attention. The Vice-president for University Affairs, Ronald Stein stated, "I don't need to see the by-laws. I'm sure they're very closed, very insular. FBI also has a copy of the by-laws in their files." Stein brought up FBI's involve, not this journalist.

What business would FBI have in the internal structure of any college newspaper, except to paper a path into grad school for their own?

Against this backdrop an undergraduate FBI hire, Jay Rosen, sauntered in the door, and talked his way into joining the paper, an adminis traitor having pre-set that, tit-for-tat, with the editor. Rosen was instantly an op-ed columnist, appointed the managing editor soon after, and then, at The Spectrum annual board meeting, reluctantly voted for by the outgoing editorial board, editor-in-chief.

Before Rosen arrived there had been a referendum on forming a new student government, for course credit instead of money, sponsored by this journalist. The Spectrum editor-in-chief named it The Leverendum. Ask Al Gore whether that measure passed or failed. The vote was delayed until exam week, without voting machines, held in one location, and run by the very people whose financial powers were being voted down.

As managing editor, out of the blue, without an interview, Rosen wrote what he claimed was a historical piece mocking the government for course credit concept, and labeled this author "the anathematic Lev", and, "the madman Lev." The editor-in-chief when this took place, into heavy pot smoking all day long, didn't read the article in advance.

Rosen's article was over the line, not only what he wrote about the "campus prophet," a man inspired with the "mull tie ling well," Television Scripture, written down to perform on world wide television for all man kind, but the manner Rosen used to demolish the government for course credit concept. When this happened it seemed Rosen was seeking to make points with the lay out group who actually determined the paper's look during that moribund period. At least one of that lay out gang, it can and will be shown, was an FBI contract employee. His wife today, sits on the editorial board of The Washington Post.

Years later I realized that professor Jay Rosen, today a Department Chair in Journal ism at NYU was FBI connected from the beginning. It was with FBI's guidance he wrote the scurrilous article, attacking and trashing the idea of an Undergraduate House of Representatives, empowered to investigate the whole university, the undergraduate grading based on the log books they kept up as Secretary's, not how the student Members voted on any issue.

The federal government, specifically the FBI will totally stonewall any request put, under the Freedom of Information Act, but proving Rosen's initial and ongoing FBI connect is a simple investigative matter.

Upon election, it's all cominmg out in the wash. I plan Undergraduate Houses of Representatives for every school in USA, or freeze their school's research dollars. The student bodies at large will have an elective course, over-seeing their millions of stew dent activities dollars. The undergrads will practice expository writing, every Member Recording Secretary, their grades based on the quality of their writing, as Members of the Undergraduate House of Representatives. It was a good idea thirty years ago and in light of the Bush presidency, better today, to inspire a fresh generation of genuine leaders to serve instead of feed off the public trough.

There is also a flaw in every college newspaper charter that needs repair, that for another op-ed piece. Hint: The student newspapers are funded by student fees, but we don't know who publishes these college papers. The mastheads don't show a publisher's chair.

Rosen's editorship at The Spectrum was three decades ago. There are professors at that university who yet remember Rosen the most vicious editor in the school's whole newspaper history! Rosen used the thrice-weekly paper to destroy the people he hated. He dismissed the black students who wanted to become journalists. With a wave of his arm he threw them out the news room door by the colors of their skin.

Fascists in our newsrooms want this essay trashed, kept from the light of day, to protect their high priest professor. But were publishers to seek a book on truth telling for journalists, one could take a dozen of Rosen-edited papers, reexamine the issues and people whose lives he mean spiritedly distorted, get at the truth behind, and reprint both. It would be the end all standard text on ethics for journalists.

Rosen's university education began with a lackluster incomplete year at a university in Pennsylvania, followed by a year at Buffalo State Teachers College. From there, he transferred into SUNYAB, but not without FBI string pulling, as the courses he'd taken, and his grades at "Buff State," didn't support or merit the move up. Rosen's undergraduate transcript, at least 60%, is "independent study," violating the university regulations. Over a flap at Harvard, in 1978, CIA head Stansfield Turner remarked, "We are above the rules and regulations of these institutions of higher learning." For J. Edgar Hoover's counter intelligence modus, Rosen's bogus undergraduate work was par.

All of Rosen's sixty four hours plus of independent study were awarded to him by one graduate student. That suspicious fellow, Stew Dent Stirutsky, was exposed to the English Department as being an FBI plant. Upon that exposureŽ, Jay Rosen's grad student mentor was immediately graduated. With an unreadable Masters thesis, gibberish in a year when there weren't any university positions for shoddy composition teachers, Stirutsky was placed at a university in Louisiana where he's remained, his reward a dead end spot, hot sauced ever since.

In one of his books Rosen paints himself an innocent altruistic fellow who interned at a newspaper after graduation, didn't take to becoming a reporter, deciding instead to resign and go on to graduate school, to study the craft of journal ism. Rosen did not resign his "internship" as a reporter. He'd moved into a full time job at the Buffalo Courier Express, and was let go for submitting an application to be a foreign correspondent, to the Courier Express, packed with lies, to Box X at the newspaper, for what Rosen thought was a help wanted ad, placed in The Courier Express classifieds by some other newspaper.

The Courier Express editors read his job application, responding to "Wanted Foreign Correspondent," that packed with lies and misleading misstatements. They called him into the editorial office and on the spot, terminated his career at the paper. Rosen, kaput, went down to New York City.

FBI pulled more strings to get him admitted to NYU. Strings had been pulled to get him admitted to SUNYAB, and strings onto the school newspaper as a columnist. FBI sent him to the Courier Express where he flunked. More strings were pulled. He was admitted to grad school at NYU, stayed there, and was awarded a Doctorate, in Journal ism. He has remained at NYU ever since. Always power seeking, he rose to become Department Chair. But without the FBI puppeteering, professor Jay Rosen could not have been admitted to NYU in the first place.

One cannot matriculate at a graduate school on the strength of an empty undergraduate transcript. His writing is awful. His Press Think blog isn't writing! Rosen talks into his computer, and uses a voice recognition program that turns speech into text. Rosen hardly changes a word. Upon an investigation of NYU records, there will also be a glowing positive letter on file from one other professor besides the FBI grad student. It would be my pleasure to write that famous, intelligence connected professor's name down, place it in an envelope, and do a Johnny Carson Karnack, meeting with editors and publishers. NYU needed something on file to cover Rosen's empty transcript.

It was clear to the university Community when Jay Rosen became editor-in-chief of The Spectrum power was his motivator. Power has driven Rosen's career. FBI stroked him early on that he would be an "architect," above the writers, a high priest, decider-in-chief.

This is serious, I believe, close to Jason Bourne. Rosen, reading this, is on the telephone demanding extreme prejudice. Bureaucracies are vicious; his career is at stake. I'm ready to hold a conference call with every editor-in-chief and newspaper publisher nationwide. During that call I will gladly fill every blank, additional proof positive to back every word - cold historical facts easily uncovered by a vigorous free press. I will also expose one other, an editorial board member at a very prominent newspaper, referred to above, and also easily proven, an FBI traveler. Each has contributed to corrupting our free press.

Publishers and editors can examine the careers of those people professor Rosen recommended to your papers. I suspect they all tend to the bureaucratic, and seek roles as editors, their preference politics. An examination of their immediate blood relatives will lead you back to the intelligence aristocracy, the Pentagon, the Defense Department, the majority of writers Rosen recommended. The Fourth Estate ought to clear its own air.

I will show you the way. Upon my election these prevaricators will be under the president's wing, in the False Witness Protection Program, foreign correspondents. This is what Dan Rather couldn't get his finger on. The FBI, using Jay Rosen, for one, has stuffed our Fourth Estate First Amendment Avenue with their own, following the Pentagon papers publication, to dilute our news reportage, and confuse realities.

These essays have gone to syndicates, for distribution, and via fax to more than 100 newspapers. The essays are for sale. I will officiate my campaign, on the ballot in New Hampshire when I will officially announce I am seeking the nomination of both political parties. In the event your newspaper is willing to have me to their offices, to answer any question, explain my views on any issue facing our nation, and there is a meeting including editorial board and staff, you will easily identify your likely FBI in the wood pile, by their eyes, as they will be unable to disguise their outrage at my presence.

Michael Stephen levinson

Candidate for president of United States