Former CIA agent Frank Schnepp perfectly describes the process of laundering disinformation to the press in order to get the public to believe government narratives:
Based on this testimony, the CIA would lie to journalists, float the same lie within their own agency and agencies in other countries so that journalists would corroborate it, and peddle false information through trusted media figures.
And if you think he's lying, consider that the U.S. government sued Schnepp all the way to the Supreme Court.
If you think that the CIA and your government suddenly stopped lying to you sometime in the last 40 years, you are hopelessly naive.
Operation Mockingbird