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Friday, November 28, 2008 12:00 AM

Mumbai, the NYT's revisionism, and lessons not learned

The Times' Editorial Page blames the Bush administration for "blessing" the military coup against Hugo Chavez without mentioning that it did the same. Why does that matter?

Glenn Greenwald

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Friday, November 28, 2008 11:19 AM

revisionism

Every nationalist is haunted by the belief that the past can be altered. He spends part of his time in a fantasy world in which things happen as they should...Much of the propagandist writing of our time amounts to plain forgery. Material facts are suppressed, dates altered, quotations removed from their context and doctored so as to change their meaning. Events which it is felt ought not to have happened are left unmentioned and ultimately denied...The primary aim of propaganda is, of course, to influence contemporary opinion, but those who rewrite history do probably believe with part of their minds that they are actually thrusting facts into the past...they feel that their own version was what happened in the sight of God, and that one is justified in rearranging the records accordingly.

-George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism

http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/nationalism.html

—Scorpio69er Read Scorpio69er's other letters

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