Appropriate? Mother Jones/David Corn To Receive Award Named For Soviet Agent

One of the ways the Soviet Union kept its population "in its place" was the continual monitoring of people who disagreed with the freedom grabbing communist system. They would infiltrate dissident groups via what they called agents provocateur pretending "sympathy to the cause", using/distorting the information to wage smear campaigns against prominent dissidents.

David Corn and Mother Jones has been hard at work duplicating the Russian methods.  With both the Romney 47% tape and the McConnell political discussion transcript, modern equivalents of agents provocateurs recorded tapes of private meetings, edited the information to distort its meaning and used it to wage smear campaigns on politicians with whom they disagreed.

One week from yesterday (April 17th) Mother Jones will be sending a delegation (including David Corn) to Ithaca to receive a "prestigious" Journalism Award, The Izzy.

The Izzy Award is named after prominent journalist and liberal hero I. F. Stone, who launched I. F. Stone's Weekly in 1953 and exposed government deception, McCarthyism, and racial bigotry.

Stone has been hailed by liberals for decades as the literal "conscience" of journalism. The Los Angeles Times dubbed him the "conscience of investigative journalism," and CNN's Larry King called him a "hero." When Stone died, an Oliphant cartoon showed him outside the Pearly Gates, with Saint Peter telephoning God, "Yes, THAT I. F. Stone, Sir. He says he doesn't want to come in -- he'd rather hang around out here, and keep things honest.

It just so happens that I.F. (Izzy) Stone was also an Agent for the Soviet Union.

When new information about Americans who had cooperated with the Soviet KGB began to emerge in the 1990s, no individual case generated as much controversy as that of the journalist I.F. Stone, who had long been installed in the pantheon of left-wing heroes as a symbol of rectitude and a teller of truth to power before his death in 1989. Charges about Stone’s connections with the KGB have been swirling about for more than a decade, prompting cries of outrage among his passionate followers. Until now, the evidence was equivocal and subject to different interpretations. No longer....

...The documentary record “shows that I.F. Stone consciously cooperated with Soviet intelligence from 1936 through 1938. An effort was made by Soviet intelligence to reestablish that relationship in 1944-45; we do not know whether that effort succeeded.....

.....The documentary record shows that I.F. Stone consciously cooperated with Soviet intelligence from 1936 through 1938. An effort was made by Soviet intelligence to reestablish that relationship in 1944-45; we do not know whether that effort succeeded

To put it plainly, from 1936 to 1939 I.F. Stone was a Soviet spy.

Izzy was considered an "agent" rather than a spy (spies collect and pass along classified information something to which Stone had no access). Also closely studying Stone’s case was Herb Romerstein, the authority on the Venona papers. 

In The Venona Secrets, Romerstein and co-author Eric Breindel wrote: “it is clear from the evidence that Stone was indeed a Soviet agent.” One of the stronger confirmations from the Soviet side is retired KGB general Oleg Kalugin, who stated flatly: “He [Stone] was a KGB agent since 1938. His code name was ‘Blin.’ When I resumed relations with him in 1966, it was on Moscow’s instructions. Stone was a devoted Communist.” Kalugin added that Stone “changed in the course of time like many of us”; in other words, he did not remain a communist — but for a time he was a Soviet agent.

That Stone chose never to reveal this part of his life strongly suggests that he knew just how incompatible it would be with his public image as a courageous and independent journalist.  David Corn and Mother Jones have used the agent provocateur strategy championed by Soviet agents. They recorded tapes of private meetings, edited the information to distort its meaning and used their fictionalized version of the proceedings to wage smear campaigns against politicians with whom they disagreed and they are praised as examples of courageous and independent journalists. This suggests that perhaps that presenting the Izzy award to Mr. Corn and Mother Jones is a very appropriate action.

Note: for additional documentation on Stone's Soviet activity please visit the links provided above.