Bad intel is being used as a tool to cause rot within our country. We see this time and time again, and I have grown sick of it.

On April 6, U.S. Intelligence officials publicly admitted they have been using weak intelligence to fight an information war with Russia. "It doesn't have to be solid intelligence," one U.S. official said. "It's more important to get out ahead of them [the Russians], Putin specifically, before they do something."

So, U.S. government officials admit that they are saying whatever they think will get the desired reaction from the Russians. Any relation to the truth is purely coincidental. All's fair in love and war, but the issue here is that the average American is the recipient of these psychological operations just as much as the Russians are. We need to be aware of how much "news" is propaganda in order to be situationally aware and to make the best plans for ourselves and our families.  

A lot of people have begun to understand this intuitively. Trust in media is close to an all-time low.

Let's look at some examples of why average Americans have lost faith in our once-trusted government and media institutions.

On March 9, a U.S. Defense official said of the Russian claims about the U.S. hosting biological weapons research facilities in Ukraine, "It is absurd. It is laughable. It is untrue." 

The day before this, March 8, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Marco Rubio asked Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland whether or not Ukraine had chemical or biological weapons. She admitted that not only do biological research facilities exist (this link has since been removed), but some of them contain research materials dangerous enough that the U.S. fears the Russians getting hold of them.