On: Rubbish (2002)

[dragonwriter]

Orwell is wrong, because most of public relations (and propaganda more generally) is printing what someone else does not want printed, too.

[bazzargh → dragonwriter]

Orwell isn't wrong in this case... because the quote wasn't Orwell. Who actually came up with it is lost to the mists of time https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01/20/news-suppress/

Orwell did state a similar notion, "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear", in the preface to Animal Farm.

[goialoq → bazzargh]

The liberty quote means something quite different, and quite controversial. Contrast against "Freedom of speech does require anyone to listen"

[toxican → bazzargh]

I think in this case it's best to attribute the quote and the Orwell attribution to Michael Scott and call it a day :)

[jokestir → dragonwriter]

Forgive me but that is pedantic.

You know exactly what Orwell means.

[dragonwriter → jokestir]

I have no idea what the (probably not Orwell, as others have pointed out) author meant if it wasn't what the words say; I assume, though, that they meant exactly what they said.

[JadeNB → dragonwriter]

Perhaps something like "journalism is revealing what someone wants to be hidden" would satisfy a stricter reading at the cost of being less punchy?

EDIT: On starting to read the article, I quite like the slogan "comforting the afflicted, afflicting the comfortable" that they mention.