<...By virtue of this information management, the American public might possibly be kept in the dark about actual events, while viewers/readers in foreign capitals might be getting a much clearer picture about what is really happening.

If it happens that misinformation is being passed to the American public, the foreign press will have a field day with it, and the American public will soon lose faith with - and perhaps even turn on - those who have misled it.



Possible, but then you have to ask, how are the people in foreign capitals getting THEIR information? From our military? Then nothing has changed. From the Taliban? Not too useful either. From independent reporters on the ground? Then the information in foreign capitals will be available on the Web and elsewhere for all of us to see. Our government is not trying to shut down information, or lie to us--they can't. Too many alternate sources, as you point out. They're just trying to limit the flow of dangerous information (dangerous to our troops, not to us) as much as possible. Heck, we don't have to make it easy for the terrorists.

Something of this sort happened with Vietnam, where the initial, almost unanimous domestic support for our efforts in SE Asia withered in the face of the notorious Credibility Gap.

The fact that the American media had an overwhelming agenda to destroy the Viet Nam war effort may have had something to do with this as well.