> the only reason anyone is talking about misinformation right now is because the entire world watched in horror at the events of January 6th

Just as a point of fact, that's false. Usage spiked in late 2019. Nothing special happens on this graph in Jan 2021, and the term is surprisingly in decline right now:

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=m...

Same with "disinformation":

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=d...