In George Orwell’s 1984, Big Brother government held monopolies on truth and morality. Bureaucrats at a literal Ministry of Truth systematically altered and destroyed historical documents in order to make them comport with the government’s current agenda. Disapproved ideas—particularly ideas that posed a threat to government orthodoxy—were incinerated in “memory holes.” All that remained were accounts of history pre-approved by the government.
Recently, the threat of a new Ministry of Truth emerged. But this time, the threat to free expression and journalistic independence didn’t emerge in Russia, or North Korea, or Venezuela, or some third world tinpot autocracy. It emerged right here in the U.S.
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