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The original 'fake news'? The BBC and the Information Research Department
IAN SINCLAIR reveals the hidden history of the BBC's relationship with the secret state, suppression of 'subversives' and support for military intervention overseas

LAST month Ritula Shah presented a BBC World Service discussion programme entitled Is “Fake News” A Threat To Democracy?

Predictably the debate focused on Russian attempts to influence Western populations and political systems.

Asked whether the US has been involved in similar activities, Dr Kathleen Bailey, a senior figure in the US State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research in the 1980s, was dismissive: “We [the US] certainly do not have a budget, bureaucracy or intellectual commitment to doing that kind of thing.”

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