CIA recruiting minority journalists at UNITY

Journalist Aura Bogada met "Craig P" (above) at the UNITY conference in Chicago this weekend, and she was impressed, in a way:

“We don’t have journalist positions at the CIA,” Craig P tells me with a wide smile, “but we do hire people that have journalism backgrounds as analysts…. And what do analysts do at the CIA? Well, they read. A lot. They read everything we give them, and make sense of it.” He asks me where I’m from, and we exchange small talk about perceptions about the West Coast and East Coast. While we’re on the topic of perceptions, I mutter something about waterboarding, but Craig P either ignores me or the comment flies right over his head. He is still smiling.

As UNITY wraps up today with a speech from Barack Obama, a burning question is, "Where is all this talent of color going to go?" You know, as newspapers and many mainstream news outlets -- once professed to be 100% committed to "newsroom diversity" -- die a slow and agonizing death. To the CIA, really? Bogado adds: "I would have to admit that for some people, the situation is bordering on desperate. That said, I am shocked that an agency which has played an important role in suppressing freedom of the press in the United States and abroad is here to recruit us."

* Bogado is a dope progressive reporter and blogger based in Los Angeles, who recently had some, uh, words for street art game-player Shepard Fairey. In interview after interview, Fairey has dismissed Bogado as "a girl who was Mexican" who once got in his face over his use of the image of Che Guevara. (Bogado's origins are in Argentina, like El Che.)

Comments

[Gustavo Arellano]

Didn't know Aura had a blog--a new must-read for me!