It's not comparable at all. Leaking stories to media organizations independent of the government, who may or may not report it, and who may or may not report it

It's not comparable at all. Leaking stories to media organizations independent of the government, who may or may not report it, and who may or may not report it in the manner that the government wishes, is not the same thing as wholesale propaganda on a massive scale. As the U.S. president regularly demonstrates in his complaints (and as all his predecessors did, to a lesser degree) the U.S. government has little power over the news media and is very unhappy with what they do. I do think the government's ability to place favorable stories and narratives in News Corp. publications (Fox, Wall St Journal) might be comparable as a propaganda operation. My sense is that that's their primary purpose. But it's still different; News Corp has the choice of whether to comply.