I was just reading this article about a new big brother initiative being pushed by the TSA. But what caught my attention was a quote from former ACLU chief Ira Glasser:

"You cannot go out and argue that privacy is important when everyone is afraid," he said. "But point out where the scams are, why these proposals will not make anything safer, and people will listen."

I think the new weapon of propoganda isn't overt mis/disinformation, but fear. The government (and media) is doing everything they can to drive fear into the people. They talk about all the different ways terrorists could kill hordes of people, and, in fact, with the flip of a switch (or whatever it takes to change the alert level) can easily increase the people's fear level. The fact of it is, if you scare the people and offer them "safety" in exchange for something (like civil rights), they'll probably go for it. Very clever... but scary.