While my Ministry of Truth video on Monday dealt primarily with the ability to pivot history on a 180-degree fulcrum, as an additional feature, it’s worth noting that the modern news media’s primary role is not to disseminate information, but to withhold it. Sometimes permanently, or simply holding it back until it won’t do much damage to a favored patron, at which point it can be released on page D-17 of the late Friday edition of the paper, in a two or three paragraph article in nine-point type next to the local plumber’s advertisement and supermarket coupons.
The drawback to this approach of course, is that if there’s a hint that the paper is sitting on a story, it can lead to wild–or who knows?–overly mild speculation about its contents.
All of which is why “2008 is not a year on which honest journalists shall look back with undiluted pleasure.”
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