ABSTRACT
The secret state is variously described and theorised: as ‘shadow government’, ‘invisible government’, ‘deep state’, ‘security state’, ‘clandestine state’. It operates both within and outside the law. David Leigh records a series of instances in which the secret services manipulated prominent journalists. Information Research Department distributed across the globe ‘white’, ‘grey’ and ‘black’ propaganda, planting smears, lies, false rumours and forged official reports in the media. Mark Urban reports that during Margaret Thatcher’s years at Number 10 spending on the intelligence services doubled and MI5 became a key player in the government machine. The Hutton Inquiry, its every twist and turn massively covered in the mainstream media, was the archetypal media spectacle that drew attention away from the broader and more significant issues – including mainstream journalists’ links with the intelligence services.
