The CIA officially ran a wiretapping program called Project Mockingbird in 1963 to spy on journalists.

There are actually two different 'Mockingbirds'. One is the confirmed 'Project Mockingbird'. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy wanted to find out who was leaking secrets to the press. The CIA tapped the home phones of two Washington writers, Robert Allen and Paul Scott, for three months. This wiretapping was totally real. It was written down in the CIA's own secret files. It shows how far the government went to watch reporters.