Winston Smith in "1984" was "a clerk for the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to rewrite historical documents so that they match the current party line". George Orwell wasn't a prophet. Throughout history, governments of all stripes have found the need to employ Winston Smiths and the US government is no exception. Government documents are routinely recalled from the FDLP, and some are re-issued after alteration.Anne Kingston at Maclean's has a terrifying article, Vanishing Canada: Why we’re all losers in Ottawa’s war on data, about the Harper administration's crusade to prevent anyone finding out what is happening as they strip-mine the nation. They don't even bother rewriting, they just delete, and prevent further information being gathered. The article mentions the desperate struggle Canadian government documents librarians have been waging using the LOCKSS technology to stay ahead of the destruction for the last three years. They won this year's CLA/OCLC Award for Innovative Technology, and details of the network are here.
Read the article and weep.
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Lesley Evans Ogden at Nature reports on the Trudeau administration's removal of the gag on scientists imposed by the Harper administration, and some of the gag's effects.
Glyn Moody at Techdirt points out that this may be just as the Cameron administration in the UK imposes a similar gag.
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