I think that the premise that Trump used the shutdown to exterminate some or all vestiges of the Mockingbird program is dead on.

For instance, in Arizona, the Gannett-held newspaper the Arizona Republic laid off two people. One was the Pulitzer-prize winning

cartoonist Steve Benson. Why is this important?

Steve Benson was basically the longest-tenured employee remaining at the paper. He had been there since 1980. My guess

is that he was the Mockingbird conduit. He was the one who

disseminated the Mockingbird instructions and talking points

to the rest of the newsroom.

I've also come to suspect over the years that Mormons are recruiting targets for the alphabet agencies, especially the CIA.

Although Steve Benson claimed to have left the LDS church, he was the grandson of former US Secretary of Agriculture and

LDS Church President Ezra Taft Benson. My guess is that even

though he was just a cartoonist he had an outsized influence in

that newsroom.

I bet if we looked at other Gannett layoffs around the country we

will find similar stories.