Common tactics, all sides
- Selective release — publish the parts that favour the narrative; withhold the parts that don't.
- Framing direction — provide outlets with the preferred wording and source language; the wording shows up in coverage downstream.
- Speed flooding — publish first to set the framing the other side then has to spend effort countering.
- Embedded sources — grant access to compliant outlets, deny access to others. The compliant outlets become the official channel.
- Casualty management — under-report own losses; foreground the other side's losses; revise quietly later.
- Atrocity framing — characterise the other side's actions as crimes; characterise one's own as proportionate response.
Why this is not paranoia
These practices are well-documented across regimes and historical conflicts. Recognising them is not the same as treating every government statement as a lie. Most official statements are true on their narrow content; the work is in noticing what they leave out.
Reader defence
- Read the same event from at least two adversarial sources.
- Identify the primary source — not the report about the primary source.
- Note what is left out, not only what is said.
- Wait for the first revision. The first-day count is rarely the final count.