This is a topic which most people (even Germans) can't really grasp or fundamentally understand.
So a reporter goes out and finds some statistic on the internet about 'X', and writes up an entire article with the basis of this statistic as the platform of the story. A month goes by, and someone comes up to note that the foundation that wrote this original survey and statistics business.....simply hired a PhD guy and told him that the survey had to end with the statistics telling a story. Sadly, the reporter did no research and figured what he was reading was totally correct. The reporter might go and correct his writing, but months down the line....another reporter picks up the article, and writes a similar report off the first reporter's story. This is misinformation, and how it works.
Disinformation works in a different fashion. This is not about an accidental report, or a accidental statistic. In this case, you go and state something as a fact....working for months to develop a story or trend....always leading to a false perception by the public. Others join in on this effort, and attempt to make the story appear correct, while it is completely and absolutely false. There are hundreds of examples that you can use in this case....but the US efforts to garner support to lead a faction against Iraq and say that 9-11 evidence points to Saddam being the chief supporter? All false stories. Most of the evidence led to Saudi officials with some agenda, and supporting various groups to trigger the US into a conflict.
So, if some government group were to assemble police-related statistics to be collected in one single fashion, to show some non-existent trend....repeating this over and over....it's disinformation.
If some video-guy set up a scene where a dozen right-wing but masked 'hoodies' ran through a parking lot and set fire to 20 cars....releasing the video under some righteous and truth-seeking political group....it's really disinformation.
You need to develop a skeptical nature and be prepared to recognize the two trends mentioned.
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