Military information support for national security purposes within the borders of the US is considered legal by the US government. It is called Civilian Affairs Information Support. The Army, it was discovered, was sending fake letters to news media organizations about experiences and events that did not happen. The Bush Administration, with the Renton Group and through the Iraqi National Council (CIA front) influenced American journalists (Gordon, Miller) to write stories it knew to be false (about WMDs in Iraq) and then pointed to the resulting publications as justification for war. Jessica Lynch's story was a fabrication and the CIA helped in the production of "Body of Lies" - this is similar to CIA involvement in the narrative development of the recent CBS production "Good Kill". Benghazi is a perfect recent example. The old terrorist boogyman line, too. Ken Dilanian was outed recently working with the CIA to 'craft' journalism about the use of Drones overseas. Speculatively: the fellowship of media executives put together by Lynton on the request of the State Department to help with anti-Russian and anti-ISIL messaging could find CAIS applications.
CAIS is a separate concept from psychological warfare that happens to weaponize American media that will also ultimately be consumed by Americans such as "The Interview" (revealed by the SONY hack leaks) or the use of front page New York Times article placement for Military Deception in the invasion of Fallujah. It is different because it specifically seeks to encourage the public to support military operations and wars: Americans are the audience.
It is also true that legally the US government is allowed to perform influence operations ("strategic communications") on Americans during states of emergency. There are reports of this being done during both Occupy and Ferguson (in Ferguson there was a media blackout zone placed over the city and the US government worked with airline companies to deny journalist travel to Ferguson to get coverage; its also true journalists were regularly and asymmetrically arrested and detained). It's true that both Occupy and Ferguson were declared states of emergency - and so it would be legal for the government to manage public perception in these cases. But we don't have smoking gun evidence to claim that there were concerted, explicit efforts.
American citizens should be aware of these things and discuss with their representatives what level of narrative support they would like their government to supply.
CAIS is a separate concept from psychological warfare that happens to weaponize American media that will also ultimately be consumed by Americans such as "The Interview" (revealed by the SONY hack leaks) or the use of front page New York Times article placement for Military Deception in the invasion of Fallujah. It is different because it specifically seeks to encourage the public to support military operations and wars: Americans are the audience.
It is also true that legally the US government is allowed to perform influence operations ("strategic communications") on Americans during states of emergency. There are reports of this being done during both Occupy and Ferguson (in Ferguson there was a media blackout zone placed over the city and the US government worked with airline companies to deny journalist travel to Ferguson to get coverage; its also true journalists were regularly and asymmetrically arrested and detained). It's true that both Occupy and Ferguson were declared states of emergency - and so it would be legal for the government to manage public perception in these cases. But we don't have smoking gun evidence to claim that there were concerted, explicit efforts.
American citizens should be aware of these things and discuss with their representatives what level of narrative support they would like their government to supply.