That sounds like it was in response to the fallout from the antiwar journal Ramparts running an expose on CIA domestic operations. After that and some related information came out many of the CIA's assets in the newspaper business started getting exposed. This got national publicity (initiated by I believe a NYT series by Seymour Hersh) during the post-Watergate investigations of the intelligence community, which would be the time frame of the Bush quote above.
There is a lot of hot air that blows around on this topic but no serious discussion about verifiable communist infiltration for mind control/agenda control via the media right here in the good ol' US OF A where every morning all the little children said the pledge and it seemed there was naught to worry about save the red button.
How close to the light can the bug get without getting burned? How on earth has America survived?