DISSING THE DISINFO DISSENTERS: Vaughn Ververs of "Hotline Scoop" takes apart the media hand-wringing over the Pentagon plan to sow disinformation in the foreign press.

If the idea of "planting" stories favorable to one's position is a sin in the world of journalism, particularly here inside the Beltway, then the confessionals ought to be plenty busy. Coming from a town that invented phrases like "plausible deniability" and "wag the dog," and that thrives on "leaks" and "trial balloons," all the outrage comes off as manufactured at best.

Ververs continues:

Similar games are played out throughout official Washington. Members of Congress or an administration carry out feuds between themselves by placing stories selectively in the media. Proposals said to be "under consideration" are leaked by opponents in order to undermine them. The New York Times story that has caused such an uproar may even be one of them. As NBC military analyst William Arkin so aptly put it: "The Office of Strategic Influence failed its first test, which is to have an article on the front page of the New York Times which essentially says the United States is now going to lie and manipulate the news." Could there be a better way to deep-six it?

And then this great conclusion:

Is a military disinformation campaign really such a shocking outrage, or does the media just feel that way when they're not a part of it?