I was talking with a retired spook this morning. He told me that in the Eighties he was on a fishing trawler off the Coast of Russia, listening to Russian Rock Music...to gather intelligence. So much for glory and glamour. I asked him what he gleaned from all that. He made me laugh: "Their disc jockeys suck."
But he said listening to Public Broadcasts gives the analysts a whole flock of trails to follow.
He said that later in his Career he spent time in certain cities...and his job was to just learn what the "Joe on the Street" thought about different subjects. He told me a couple stories about Clocks before the USSR came apart. Apparently the BBC tried to get their News broadcasts into the USSR, and they had a different shaped Clock on the Wall behind them than the STATE run news did. So at school the kids were asked if their Parents watched TV. If the answer was yes. They asked what kind of Clock was on the screen. If it is was one kind , the family was safe. If it was the other....then the KGB paid a visit. So kids turned their parents in without even being aware of it.
I asked him if there is any accurate News ...he laughed.
"Kevin, everyone spins the narrative...just look at dating. "
I had to laugh.