COMMENTARY
Generoso Pope, Jr.
(1927-1988) was a
highly intelligent
man who studied at
the Horace Mann
School and graduated
from MIT at 19. He was
the son of an
Italian-American
newspaper magnate
and took over the
management of his
father's newspapers
in 1948.
In mid-1950 - three
years after the
events at Roswell,
NM -
Generoso Pope, Jr.
began a year with
the psychological
warfare section of
the CIA. He
was 24 years of age.
His father had
recently passed that
April.
In 1952 - the
year of the famous
July sightings over
the nation's capitol -
Mr. Pope bought the New
York Enquirer for
$75,000 (about
$700,000 in 2013
dollars).
In 1954 -
a
year after the
Robertson Panel
delivered its report
to President
Eisenhower -
Pope, Jr. converted
the newspaper to a
tabloid and
renamed it
The
National Enquirer.
From 1954 to 1966
The National
Enquirer sold only
on newsstands and in
drugstores and
focused on sex,
violence and other
salacious material.
It's circulation
increased to 1
million.
In 1967, at
a time when the U.S.
government was
initiating a complex
process to rid
itself of the
public's irritating
interest in the UFO
phenomenon,
Pope, Jr. revamped The
National Enquirer,
moved aggressively
to place it in
grocery stores
across the country,
and added frequent
UFO stories to the
content. Photos
and graphics
promoting
questionable UFO
stories were
featured on the
covers of the
tabloid and seen
millions of times by
U. S. citizens.
In 1979, shortly
after Stanton
Friedman met and
began researching
the testimony of
retired army
intelligence officer
Major Jesse Marcel,
Sr., Pope,
Jr. launched the Weekly
World News in
all the grocery
stores carrying The
National Enquirer.
For the next 28
years Americans
going to buy
groceries were
treated to the likes
of these stories:
The Weekly
Word News became
a legend for making
everything up while
posing as tabloid
news. From 1979
through the end of
the Cold War, the
Clinton
Administration, and
well into the Bush
administration the WWN sat
next to The
National Enquirer taking
over the ET disinfo
heavy lifting. While
not all Americans
have a degree in
quantum mechanics,
or for that matter
finished high
school, in time few
did not know the WWN was
simply nonsense.
It closed down in
2007 and went to
live as parody on
the Internet. Pope,
Jr. died in 1988 a
multi-millionaire
having served his
country well, or at
least the CIA
well. The Truth
Embargo had made it
through the Cold War
intact. The
disinformation
division of the
Truth Embargo moved
on to the Internet
working under
different
parameters. How
many websites the
CIA and other
agencies control may
never be known.
The Truth Embargo
has lasted because,
like the Pyramids of
Giza, it is built
with thousands of
well crafted blocks
fit tightly
together. It is a
master work that
will soon be as
inert as those
pyramids. This
because, unlike
newspapers in racks
at checkout
counters, the
Internet provides
the citizen receiver
as much power as it
provides the
disinformer. It is
self cleansing with
a living immune
system to counter
the manipulations of
the state.
When the Truth
Embargo does end
with Disclosure, the
public will have
many decisions to
make, not the least
of which is, "Do we
want this to ever
happen again?"
Stephen Bassett
PRG Executive
Director
[Feel free to
republish this
commentary.]
