As the journalistic paragon of invasive surveillance techniques depicted in Nineteen Eighty Four, Scrapbook cannot help but admire the chutzpah of the News of the World in referencing, erm, George Orwell as a parting shot on its final back page.
The quote is taken from the essay Decline of the English Murder:
“It is Sunday afternoon, preferably before the war. The wife is already asleep in the armchair and the children have been sent out for a nice long walk. You put your feet up on the sofa, settle your spectacles on your nose, and open the News of the World.”
May we suggest that the following would have been appropriate:
“Glenn Mulcaire and Paul McMullan are watching you.”
But perhaps our readers can think of a more fitting Orwell quotation — leave your suggestions in the comments.
13 Comments
A family with the wrong members in control; that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase.
George Orwell
Interesting that many of the frontpages in their website’s archive have large black boxes censoring the headlines.
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine Rupert Murdoch stamping on a human face – forever.”
Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.
George Orwell
All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.
George Orwell
More appropriate NOTW headline:
“Please leave your message after the tone..”
George Orwell
“All the papers that matter live off their advertisements, and the advertisers exercise an indirect censorship over news.”
“All media moguls are equal. But some are more equal than others….”
Get your coat, you’ll been pulled.
TAXI for notw.
George Orwell – ‘In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act’
“Fear of the mob is a superstitious fear. It is based on the idea that there is some mysterious, fundamental difference between rich and poor, as though they were two different races, like Negroes and white men. But in reality there is no such difference. The mass of the rich and the poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit. Change places, and handy dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? Everyone who has mixed on equal terms with the poor knows this quite well. But the trouble is that intelligent, cultivated people, the very people who might be expected to have liberal opinions, never do mix with the poor. For what do the majority of educated people know about poverty?”
[Down and Out in Paris and London.]
One of my neighbours, piss poor, has not worked for years, single dad, three kids living with him in a 2 bed council flat, voted Labour at the last election . . . seen buying the last edition of the NOTW this morning. Along with the five other people who visited the shop whilst I was in there. They all looked like Labour voters too.
“All men are enemies. All animals are comrades.” (Animal Farm)
I think the war reference is very relevant. I think we’re barely into the first battle of this saga.
Check out my view at http://dasteepsspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/07/news-is-screwed.html
You might also be interested in my view on the disgrace that is the PCC: http://dasteepsspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/07/fall-of-another-flop.html
George Orwell is known for WAR OF THE WORLDS and 1984. ET as in Area 51. See LIFE One Nation published in 2001 after the 9-11 attacks. Note baseball game and fan with 51, same as date 5-1 announcement by President Obama about death of Bin Laden. 5-1 is May Day. 10th anniversary of 9-11 song by Simon and Garfunkel Sounds of Silence aka S.O.S. Coincidences?
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