Mainstream media, particularly right-wing outlets, often act as stenographers for the intelligence community and defense industry. The very same networks that championed the invasion of Iraq — based on CIA fabrications — now elevate figures like North to push for hardline action against Iran, Russia, or whoever the next target may be.

These narratives are shaped less by facts and more by defense contracts and intelligence agendas.

It’s worth remembering the Church Committee hearings of the 1970s, where the CIA’s dark and illegal operations — including propaganda campaigns, foreign assassinations, and media manipulation — were exposed to the public.

The hearings proved that American democracy had long been under the shadow of unelected, unaccountable security agencies. Those lessons have been largely forgotten, buried under decades of war-on-terror rhetoric and a 24/7 news cycle addicted to fear and conflict.

American Dad parodied Oliver North in 2008 in a bizarre but strangely accurate musical number, portraying him as a shady relic of the deep state with an inexplicable hold on patriotic sentiment.

The absurdity of that song now feels like prophecy: a cartoon understanding of how the Deep State lionizes its worst actors in the name of freedom.

Oliver North’s career arc — from illegal arms dealer to media war hawk — isn’t just hypocritical. It’s a symbol of a broader sickness: a nation where accountability is optional, war is profitable, and truth is whatever the intel agencies say it is.