What mockingbird does is have embeds in the corporate press start discussions with their coworkers using persuasion tactics to get the idiot journalists to think they came up with ideas in the first place. It actually works well that the targets are dumber than the assets. The assets probably have an air of intelligence and expertise that makes unthinking NPCs copy whatever is suggested.
That's in the newsroom anyway. I don't know if the "somebody in chat" is an asset too but maybe.