Thursday, June 27, 2019
Not Orwell
"New" "revelations" about the NYTimes are "shocking":
The American newspaper of record regularly collaborates with the US government, suppressing reporting that top officials don’t want made public.
Nothing new. Always been that way. The myth of newspapers as counterforces to government has always been total nonsense.
The phrase "paper of record" is supposed to be ironic and Orwellian. I've always gone along with that supposition, and I've used the phrase that way.
Convective thought: No, it's not ironic or Orwellian. The original simple meaning of a "newspaper of record" comes from the distant past when every city with a population over 2000 had many newspapers. The city GOVERNMENT picked and paid one newspaper to carry Legal Notices about lawsuits, property transfers, probated wills, etc.
PAPER OF RECORD explicitly means GOVERNMENT-CONTROLLED OUTLET.
¶ 8:15 AM 
