Living in a dream world - The American right not to know

In a bottom-line age, the media reports what the public wants to know. Too often, what the public wants is a comforting story ..

Michael Massing, "What Orwell Didn't Know" | Salon.com:

...In his reflections on politics and language, Orwell operated on the assumption that people want to know the truth. Often, though, they don't. In the case of Iraq, the many instruments Orwell felt would be needed to keep people passive and uninformed -- the nonstop propaganda messages, the memory holes, the rewriting of history, Room 101 -- have proved unnecessary. The public has become its own collective Ministry of Truth -- a reality that, in many ways, is even more chilling than the one Orwell envisioned.

I don't think the American public has changed all that much compared to earlier years, but I do think the media is more adept at giving us what we want -- perhaps because the media is facing financial ruin.

There's nothing in the story any informed citizen doesn't already know, but it's a good review.