The below are FBI files on television networks. All were obtained via the Freedom of Information Act / Privacy Act.

Document Archive

American Broadcasting Company (ABC) – FBI Release #1 – [94 Pages, 44.7MB] American Broadcasting Company (ABC) – FBI Release #2 – [8 Pages, 1.2MB]The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American English language commercial broadcast television network that is owned by the Disney–ABC Television Group, a subsidiary of the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered on Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City. There are additional major offices and production facilities elsewhere in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles and Burbank, California.

CNN – FBI Release #1 – [197 Pages, 62MB] CNN – FBI Release #2 – [35 Pages, 1.5MB] – The Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.  Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the Manhattan-based media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage and the first all-news television channel in the United States.

MTV aka Music Television [115 Pages, 5MB] – MTV (originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel, launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks division of ViacomCBS, also headquartered in New York City. MTV was originally first tested on December 1, 1977, as Sight on Sound, but was officially launched in 1981, and originally aired music videos as guided by television personalities known as “video jockeys” (VJs), but in the years since its inception, the network significantly toned down its focus on music in favor of original reality programming targeting youths and young adults. MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the U.S. and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent, with approximately 90.6 million American households in the United States receiving the channel as of January 2016.

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In 2013, NBC did a very popular story on the “Secret” CIA Museum inside the agency’s compound. Here is an excerpt from their article, followed by the online video piece:

The “coolest museum you’ll never see” has a new piece de resistance – the gun found next to the body of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan when Navy SEALs killed him in a midnight raid.

The AK-47 is a recent addition to a collection that’s among the toughest tickets in the country for museumgoers. Tucked into various hallways at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., the museum displays the gadgets, artifacts and trophies of 70 years of spycraft, from World War II through the War on Terror. The museum is closed to the public and is only visited by employees and invited guests. It is rare for cameras to be allowed in.

The Russian-made assault rifle, identified on a simple brass plaque as “Osama bin Laden’s AK-47,” shares a glass case with an al Qaeda training manual found in Afghanistan soon after 9/11.

Intrigued by the story, and what it would take to have NBC film their piece there, I filed a FOIA request to the CIA in 2013. I requested, specifically, the following:

1. All documents, electronic or otherwise, generated about this trip. This includes correspondence via email, postal mail, etc., about the visit by NBC News.
2. All documents, electronic or otherwise, that are given to visitors of the museum. This includes any tour guides, pamphlets, rules, etc.
3. All documents, electronic or otherwise, that instruct CIA employees on how to visit the museum, how to invite friends, etc.

It took until January of 2016 to get the documents released to me. They are available below.

Some key points about these documents:

• It showed there was concern that the original NBV story would increase/surge the number of incoming FOIA requests.
• A donor (redacted) objected to his stuff being in the story, so they kept the NBC crew out of the Cold War room. Wonder why?
• They compiled Tweets on Twitter and made a huge document with them that mentioned the CIA Museum. Looks like over 1300.  In other words — they are WATCHING!

Original NBC News Story

Declassified Documents

 NBC / CIA Correspondence and Documents Relating to the CIA Museum Story [218 Pages, 18.8MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/cia/CIAMuseum-NBCStory.pdf

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