Winston Smith is working overtime: (If you don't know who Winston Smith is, you're not going to understand a lot of my rants: read "1984!") Yesterday morning, CNN reported on their web site a flash bulletin that a U.S. missile had landed in Iran. CNN promised details to come. Shortly thereafter, the bulletin banner disappeared, with no details anywhere to be found. Down the memory hole. Later in the day, a U.S. official issued an apology to Iran, according to a Reuters report. Now, that report has been altered to say that the apology has been retracted, since the U.S. now says it doesn't know whose missile(s) landed in Iran. (I guess I'm going to have to start saving articles as I find them if the news web sites are going to modify them without changing the URL.) Now, Reuters reports that Iran is saying the missile probably was Iraqi. At least, that is what that link says now. Here's a verbatim copy of the link as it exists now (9 am EST Sunday), so when the story changes later today we'll have something for comparison.
IMHO, news web sites should not alter reports under the same URL without specifically noting the change and when it was made. I sometimes add on to my rants with new information, but I try to indicate that this is an update (except for simple spelling or grammar mistakes). Other times, I simply make a newer post which corrects or clarifies the earlier one. Major news stories from CNN, the NY Times, Washington Post, or the wire services are frequently stories in themselves. If it turns out that no missiles at all landed in Iran, the very existence of these stories was still news in that it caused concerns and reactions. For the links to simply disappear down the memory hole, or to say something completely different without explanation, is 1984's "Ministry of Truth" hard at work. And every day there is less doubt that the corporate media is the Ministry of Truth, just as Homeland Security is the Ministry of Love, the Pentagon is the Ministry of Peace, and the tax cuts for the wealthy and elimination of the economic safety net are clearly the work of the Ministry of Plenty. Our government is locking people up indefinitely, it is encouraging people to spy on each other, it is pursuing perpetual war while keeping people terrified on the home front. It may be 19 years behind schedule, but 1984 is here.
IMHO, news web sites should not alter reports under the same URL without specifically noting the change and when it was made. I sometimes add on to my rants with new information, but I try to indicate that this is an update (except for simple spelling or grammar mistakes). Other times, I simply make a newer post which corrects or clarifies the earlier one. Major news stories from CNN, the NY Times, Washington Post, or the wire services are frequently stories in themselves. If it turns out that no missiles at all landed in Iran, the very existence of these stories was still news in that it caused concerns and reactions. For the links to simply disappear down the memory hole, or to say something completely different without explanation, is 1984's "Ministry of Truth" hard at work. And every day there is less doubt that the corporate media is the Ministry of Truth, just as Homeland Security is the Ministry of Love, the Pentagon is the Ministry of Peace, and the tax cuts for the wealthy and elimination of the economic safety net are clearly the work of the Ministry of Plenty. Our government is locking people up indefinitely, it is encouraging people to spy on each other, it is pursuing perpetual war while keeping people terrified on the home front. It may be 19 years behind schedule, but 1984 is here.
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