@davidho
I think they believe they can shape physical reality by controlling how it is reported.
I'm not joking, I think they literally believe that reality is created by being reported a certain way:
"You're in what we call the reality-based community ... That's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community