Toggle Menu

Briefing: Greg Mitchell on America’s Massive Intelligence Apparatus

How was America's hidden intelligence infrastructure allowed to grow so large while other social programs whithered?

The Nation on Grit TV

July 19, 2010

Everywhere you look, jobs are cut, programs are eliminated and the fat is trimmed as closely as possible to leave only the bare bones of our social infrastructre. Well, almost everywhere. It seems that for all the cost cuts surrounding education and employment benefits, a disproportionate amount of money has poured into intelligence and security, better known as the U.S. Military Industrial Complex. It was this imbalance in public spending and private contractors prompted the Washington Post to conduct a two-year long investigation into this hidden world.

The Nation‘s Media Fix Blogger Greg Mitchell joins us in the studio to explain how hidden America was allowed to grow so large while other parts of our society whithered. Mitchell also talks about the recent PBS documentary "Turmoil and Triumph"—an uncomfortably flattering three-part documentary on George Shultz’s three years as Secretary of State. Normally, PBS would not air an apparently biased piece, but, as Mitchell implies, sometimes media and  government work together to keep the public in the dark.

The Nation on GRIT TV is a weekly video collaboration between The Nation and GRIT TV with Laura Flanders. Watch for Monday briefings, Wednesday commentaries, weekend conversations and more at TheNation.com. For full half-hour episodes of The Nation on GRIT TV, or local television air times visit www.grittv.org.

The Nation on Grit TVThe Nation on Grit TV is a weekly collaboration between The Nation and Grit TV.  Each week Nation contributors join host Laura Flanders in studio to expand on the reporting and analysis found in The Nation magazine.


Latest from the nation