Topic: George Orwell

“Tales From The Memory Hole” Episode 3, US Civil Rights Commission Removes Bush-Unfriendly Reports From Website.

By Terry McMoore | June 27, 2007 |

The Republican controlled US Commission on Civil Rights has completely watered downed or eliminated much of the information we read or download from their website.
The current commissioners, who have very little experience or past dealings in the civil rights arena but were appointed by the current presidential administration, have shown that they intend to rubber stamp out anything that does not support the party’s agenda and ideology of valid civil rights information to disseminate to the public. «Read the rest of this article»

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“Tales From The Memory Hole” Episode 2 New York Fire Department Dispatch Tapes from 9/11 Released!

By Terry McMoore | March 31, 2007 |

 It took a bitterly fought lawsuit brought by the New York Times to get the Fire Department of New York to release some of its dispatch tapes from 9/11. The NYT requested the tapes in early 2002, got denied, and went to court. When the FDNY lost the fight three and a half years later, on 12 August 2005 it made available 23 CDs, almost all containing audio of radio dispatches, plus transcripts of oral histories and some other text. The NYT posted about one-quarter to one-third of the audio. The Memory Hole also received the discs due to its freedom of information request, and we’re posting all of them.

Twenty-one of the CDs are audio CDs. The Memory Hole has ripped the audio into MP3 files and posted them at the Internet Archive. Each one lasts 44 to 47 minutes. The link below will open each MP3 (64 Kbps). «Read the rest of this article»

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“Tales From The Memory Hole” a mountain of material that exposes things that we’re not supposed to know (or that we’re supposed to forget).

By Terry McMoore | February 19, 2007 |

The memory hole, as in the phrase “Going down the memory hole,” refers to a mechanism for censorship in George Orwell’s novel, 1984.

In the novel, the memory hole is a slot into which government officials deposit politically inconvenient documents and records to be destroyed. 1984’s protagonist Winston Smith, who works in the Ministry of Truth, is routinely assigned the task of revising old newspaper articles in order to serve the propaganda interests of the government.

For example, if the government had pledged that the chocolate ration would not fall below the current 30 grams per week, but in fact the ration is reduced to 20 grams per week, the historical record (e.g. an article from a back issue of the Times newspaper) is revised to contain an announcement that a reduction to 20 grams might soon prove necessary, or that the ration has in fact gone up to 20 grams from some lower number, in a deliberate example of doublethink. The original copies of the historical record are deposited into the memory hole. «Read the rest of this article»

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Orwell Rolls In His Grave The Power Of US Corporate Media

By Bill Larson | February 16, 2007 |

Orwell rolls in his grave is the consummate critical examination of the Fourth Estate, once the bastion of American democracy by Director Robert Kane Pappas. Asking whether America has entered an Orwellian world of doublespeak where outright lies can pass for the truth, Pappas explores what the media doesn’t like to talk about: itself.

Meticulously tracing the process by which media has distorted and often dismissed actual news events, Pappas presents a riveting and eloquent mix of media professionals and leading intellectual voices on the media.

Among the cast of characters in Orwell rolls in his grave are Charles Lewis, director of the Center for Public Integrity, Vincent Bugliosi, former L.A. prosecutor and legal scholar, film director and author Michael Moore, Rep. Bernie Sanders, Danny Schecter, author and former producer for ABC and CNN, and Tony Benn, former member of the British Parliament.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2664529389359423152

«Read the rest of this article»

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Welcome to 1984

By Tom Paine | September 30, 2006 |

Shortly, with Der Fuerer’s signing of the torture bill passed this week by congress, the United States will become a fascist state in all but name. No longer will be subject to the rule of law, but rather to the caprice of a man who I judge to be amoral and immoral. Habeus corpus has been done away with. The right to to a speedy and fair trial by a jury of your peers has been done away with. The right to be apprised of the charges brought against you and to confront your accusers has been done away with. The right to legal counsel has been done away with.

Instead, the chief executive of the United States reserves to himself the right to designate whomever he wishes as an “enemy combatant”. Once so designated, the president has the right to dispose of you in any manner he sees fit. You will be “disappeared”. No one will be told where you have been take or what has been done to you. You will be held incognito so long as the president wishes. And while being held, they may use any technique they desire to extract information from you. Nor can they be held liable for their actions, this bill gives them a get out of jail free card for all such actions performed in the past, present or future. You will be unable to do ANYTHING to them or ANYTHING to get yourself out of their clutches. «Read the rest of this article»

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