# CIA media revolving door > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "CIA media revolving door," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-media-revolving-door/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's proposed reform to bar CIA officers from becoming paid media personalities without a cooling-off period, and to strip the security clearances of retirees who go straight from the agency to cable-news punditry.* - **Kiriakou's reform:** Cooling-off period; revoke pundits' clearances The **CIA media revolving door** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s term for the flow of intelligence officials straight into paid media roles, and his proposed reform against it. Just as senior officials cannot become lobbyists without an 18-month cooling-off period, he argues, a CIA or intelligence director should not be able to *"leave on a Friday"* and appear on MSNBC or CNN *"on Monday."*[1][2] Worse, he says, retirees who become cable pundits keep their security clearances and access to classified information, and the public is *"supposed to just trust"* they do not mix it into their punditry.[3] As evidence, he points to retired CIA directors becoming paid national-security consultants for every major network — James Clapper on CNN, John Brennan on MSNBC, Michael Hayden on Fox — walking straight from running the agency into on-air commentary about it.[4] ## Which networks are the "cheerleaders" Kiriakou argues the conventional wisdom about network bias is backwards: only under Donald Trump did Fox News turn against the CIA, while MSNBC and CNN remain the agency's real cheerleaders, airing what he calls pro-CIA interviews as a matter of course.[5] He cites hosts squeezed out for opposing the agency's line: Phil Donahue and Jesse Ventura both lost their MSNBC shows over opposition to the Iraq War, and a former colleague, Brian Becker, a regular anti-war voice on MSNBC, was never invited back once he was deemed too anti-war after the Iraq invasion.[6] Kiriakou's own on-air treatment illustrates the door from the other side. Invited onto Ari Melber's MSNBC show alongside Daniel Ellsberg, he was introduced — against the wording he'd agreed with producers — as a *"convicted felon and CIA leaker."* He pulled his microphone off in protest; after being re-miked, he was cut to twenty seconds of a thirty-minute interview and never invited back.[5] He says he boycotts *The Rachel Maddow Show* because she introduces him on-air as *"John Kiriakou who styles himself a whistleblower,"* even though Fox News called him "whistleblower John Kiriakou" from the day of his arrest and MSNBC calls him a "CIA leaker."[7] ## See also - [CIA media revolving door](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-media-revolving-door) - [Abolish the CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abolish-the-cia) - [CIA media relations](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-media-relations) - [Operation Mockingbird](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/operation-mockingbird) ## Sources 1. John Kiriakou: The CIA's Tortures and Crimes (2025-12-08), at 27:35. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qVZ2KGc9-g&t=1655s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-08-judging-freedom-cia-tortures-and-crimes/ 2. John Kiriakou: The CIA's Tortures and Crimes (2025-12-08), at 28:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qVZ2KGc9-g&t=1685s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-08-judging-freedom-cia-tortures-and-crimes/ 3. John Kiriakou: The CIA's Tortures and Crimes (2025-12-08), at 28:39. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qVZ2KGc9-g&t=1719s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-12-08-judging-freedom-cia-tortures-and-crimes/ 4. John Kiriakou — CIA Whistleblower — Episode 83 — The Georg (2024-09-03), at 46:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfbf9gSVdJM&t=2765s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-09-03-george-peyrouton/ 5. Scheer Intelligence: John Kiriakou Interview 9/10/21 (2022-05-19), at 42:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4cW71vcS_o&t=2562s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-19-scheerpost/ 6. Scheer Intelligence: John Kiriakou Interview 9/10/21 (2022-05-19), at 49:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4cW71vcS_o&t=2940s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-19-scheerpost/ 7. Scheer Intelligence: John Kiriakou Interview 9/10/21 (2022-05-19), at 44:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4cW71vcS_o&t=2690s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-19-scheerpost/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia-media-revolving-door/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt