4 ms·

Possibly spurious: see http://blogs.umb.edu/quoteunquote/2012/09/25/even-if-it-looks-sounds-walks-and-quacks-like-an-orwell-quote-it-still-might-not-be-an-orwel

Possibly spurious: see http://blogs.umb.edu/quoteunquote/2012/09/25/even-if-it-looks-sounds-walks-and-quacks-like-an-orwell-quote-it-still-might-not-be-an-orwell-quote/ http://blogs.umb.edu/quoteunquote/2012/09/25/even-if-it-look...

SilasX 8y ago
The attribution might be spurious; the insight isn't.
- mesofile 8y ago
  I thought the quote was pithy, but it didn't quite sound like Orwell to me (who I have read a lot of, though not recently). "What someone else doesn't want printed" is a formulation that doesn't quite mean _truth_; Orwell felt seriously about the journalist's responsibility to be truthful and it seemed like he might have made a finer distinction. Quick search and lo. Orwell is claimed by partisans of all kinds due to his great reputation as a moral thinker and his willingness to criticize political actors & ideologies across the spectrum. Consequently his writings are often misquoted, misattributed or taken out of context. The "rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf" one is a classic example.
- linguistbreaker 8y ago
  The concept of truth is notably absent from this quote though. Printing what someone doesn't want printed is just as likely public relations. I get that what it's (probably) going for is bringing truth to light but truth is exactly what seems to be so slippery these days.
ChrisSD 8y ago
Spuriously attributing quotes to Orwell is a long standing tradition. As Abraham Lincoln said: "The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity".
- crooked-v 8y ago
  I'm pretty sure that one is from Neville Chamberlain, actually.
dang 8y ago
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01/20/news-suppress/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01/20/news-suppress/ Quote Investigator is as authoritative as the internet gets on these things.

4 ms·

Possibly spurious: see http://blogs.umb.edu/quoteunquote/2012/09/25/even-if-it-looks-sounds-walks-and-quacks-like-an-orwell-quote-it-still-might-not-be-an-orwel

by mesofile 8y ago

SilasX 8y ago
The attribution might be spurious; the insight isn't.
- mesofile 8y ago
  I thought the quote was pithy, but it didn't quite sound like Orwell to me (who I have read a lot of, though not recently). "What someone else doesn't want printed" is a formulation that doesn't quite mean _truth_; Orwell felt seriously about the journalist's responsibility to be truthful and it seemed like he might have made a finer distinction. Quick search and lo. Orwell is claimed by partisans of all kinds due to his great reputation as a moral thinker and his willingness to criticize political actors & ideologies across the spectrum. Consequently his writings are often misquoted, misattributed or taken out of context. The "rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf" one is a classic example.
- linguistbreaker 8y ago
  The concept of truth is notably absent from this quote though. Printing what someone doesn't want printed is just as likely public relations. I get that what it's (probably) going for is bringing truth to light but truth is exactly what seems to be so slippery these days.
ChrisSD 8y ago
Spuriously attributing quotes to Orwell is a long standing tradition. As Abraham Lincoln said: "The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity".
- crooked-v 8y ago
  I'm pretty sure that one is from Neville Chamberlain, actually.
dang 8y ago
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01/20/news-suppress/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/01/20/news-suppress/ Quote Investigator is as authoritative as the internet gets on these things.