Orwell’s Warning: Does the Media Reveal Truth or Manufacture Illusion?

Though George Orwell is most famous for his last two books, Animal Farm and 1984, his essays cannot be neglected. Orwell’s essays are significant for their moral clarity, plainspoken prose, and fearless engagement with power, language, and truth. Orwell exposed how political language distorts reality and how intellectual dishonesty enables oppression. His essays have endured because they model a rare union of ethical seriousness, stylistic precision, and civic responsibility.

While reading Keith Gessen's introduction to All Art Is Propaganda, this passage especially struck home.

Orwell's voice as a writer had been formed before Spain, but Spain gave him a jolt--not the fighting or the injury [EdNote: He was shot in the neck by a sniper while fighting in the Spanish Civil War], though these had their effects, but the calculated campaign of deception he saw in the press when he got back, waged by people who knew better.

"Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper," Orwell recalled, "but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed... kind of thing is frightening to me, because it often gives me the feeling that the very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. After all, the chances are that those lies, or at any rate similar lies, will pass into history."  

This insight reverberates through Orwell's work for the rest of his life.  

For anyone paying attention, it should be a recurring theme throughout our own lifetimes. What is true? What's really going on?

It takes work, discernment and wisdom to see through the fog, and in some cases we'll never really know what the story really is. What we can do, however, be willing to set things on the shelf until we know more or it becomes irrelevant to know. It takes courage to say, "I don't know" when everyone else is clamoring for you to take a position.

My father was once called to jury duty for a trial the required a verdict with regards to a serious crime. Both sides painted a compelling argument for guilt or innocence. It became clear that one side was lying, but their arguments were so carefully laid out that he had no idea which side was lying and which was telling the truth.

To me, it seems clear that a measured skepticism is the only way to engage today's news media. This means questioning sources, incentives, framing, and omissions while still valuing verified reporting and evidence. Uncritical acceptance invites manipulation; total cynicism invites ignorance. And sometimes we just don't know.

A Visit with Tim Hatfield, Author of an Uplifting Book Featuring the Beatles Catalog in Its Entirety

Tim Hatfield's book is titled The Beatles: All their songs with encouraging words for challenging times. It's a rewarding read for any Beatles fan, not only because of the insights Hatfield serves, but because it speaks volumes about dealing with difficult times.

Tim Hatfield

The evolution of his project from concept to finished book is a great story. The Beatles music serves as Ariadne's thread, leading us through the labyrinth of emotions we experienced during the first wave of the pandemic. 

Here's one of the lines he wrote that jumped out at me: "When times are challenging we have to be intentional about being hopeful." The book is awash with encouragement and wisdom for those traveling through tough times.

When the pandemic kicked in, when things were most uncertain, Hatfield set about to write uplifting words of comfort and encouragement to his circle of friends to help them get through these difficult times. His background as a counselor prompted him to think of others who might be feeling the uncertainty he was feeling. To give them hope he began writing one email a day using Beatles songs as the seed for each daily message. 

In this interview he related that time period and talks about his longtime love of the Beatles music since seeing them twice in the Sixties.

EN: There's a sense in which your song summaries are a bit like Aesop's Fables. Fable is a story and that ends with a moral to the story. Was Aesop trying to help his community the way you're striving to help your tribe? Does this analogy work to describe your book?

Tim Hatfield: What a cool question! It’s very kind of you, but I think my stories fall short of Aesop’s large life lessons. Structurally, his fables and my stories are the same. But I would have had to research Aesop to be able to speak to his motivation, which I haven’t. I have to believe that Aesop had an interest in helping people to make good decisions or else he wouldn’t have bothered, right? He was trying to help people be wise and responsible, a way to help his community. I think if there is a parallel with my essays, it is that I was hoping to be helpful in a more concrete way by simply being supportive and encouraging of folks who had to be in basic survival mode because of the uncharted territory of the pandemic.

EN: I like the way you dig into the roots of the Beatles' influences, especially when writing about the artists whose work they covered like Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. Were there any especially big surprises for you in that early part of their catalog?

TH: I knew that the Beatles had been voracious consumers of as many American       r & b, soul, and rock artists as they could find (mostly in manager Brian Epstein’s record store), but I was so impressed that throughout their career the Beatles were such students of every imaginable genre of music, as well as students of the culture at large. They were creative sponges of it all, and genius integrative transformers. They changed music, which changed the culture, which changed us. I feel very fortunate to have come of age with the Beatles.

EN: Very cool that you had a chance to see the Beatles. How old were you and what was it like to be there? 

TH: I saw the Beatles twice in person in Cincinnati, first in the summer of 1964, after my first year of college when I was 18, then again two years later. The first time was at the Cincinnati Gardens, an indoor arena that was the home of the NBA’s Cincinnati Royals. It was packed with 10,000 or so very loud fans, and unforgettable. The 1966 concert, when John Lennon had been vilified because of the “more popular than Jesus” statement, they performed at the Cincinnati Reds baseball stadium, Crosley Field. It wasn’t nearly a sellout because of that, but they played great. And in retrospect, there was no way to know how momentous a time this was to be a part of – they gave up the road shortly thereafter.

EN: There were lots of groups forming and re-forming during the Sixties. What was the magic that made the Beatles stand out from the rest? 

TH: Their exponential growth, their impeccable harmonies, their remarkable eclecticism, and their astounding resilience through their meteoric rise and success. So many books have spoken to this in great detail that it seems pretty presumptuous to boil it down to just a few phrases, but I think every Beatles fan could benefit from the chance to identify their personal take on the essence of the Beatles.

EN: I know it's impossible, but which three albums would you call their most significant? Do you have a favorite?

TH: My favorite Beatles album is Abbey Road, which contains my favorite Beatles “song,” the Side B medley, which I am convinced is a microcosm of the key elements of the group’s complete body of work. I wrote at length about that before I did the book, and included it in compressed form in the book’s section on the medley. On top of this, some other astounding songs are on the album. The Beatles – all of them – loved making “Come Together.” And not one, but two of George Harrison’s masterpieces also are on the album – “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something.” The other two most significant albums? I love Rubber Soul, with one superb song after another in what I consider to be the album when the Beatles downshifted from their early songs into the beginning of their hugely creative period of work. And although Sergeant Pepper got so much ink as the breakthrough album, I’d like to point to the brilliance of Revolver as a follow-up to Rubber Soul, and to The White Album, with so much brilliant diversity and virtuosity despite the fact that the fault lines were beginning to appear in the Beatles as a group. OK, I cheated, and sneaked in 4 instead of 3………. 

EN: Your motivation for writing these stories seems fairly self-evident. What prompted you to compile all this in book form? 

TH: That’s easy. As you know, my initial strong motivation back in March of 2020 was to send my family and a few friends something, anything, that would help sustain them during those very dark, confusing, frightening early days of the pandemic. The President was lying on TV every day about the seriousness of the virus, even while the most astute public health officials were saying otherwise. It was a scary time. So, as a lifelong Beatles fan, it was an easy decision to send a song along with a little back story and some connection between the song and encouragement that my intimates could and would persevere. 

From the very beginning, I received grateful, affirming responses (e.g., “this is the best I’ve felt in weeks”;  “do this again!”) that took on a life of their own (e.g., “I have my first cup of coffee every morning with the Beatles and you. Thank you!”; “I look forward to these so much; keep ‘em coming.”). The initial mailing list of 20-some people grew organically through word of mouth to over 200, and along the way the responses from a good number of people – 10? A couple dozen? I wasn’t keeping a scoreboard, but these were people close to me, and whose opinions I trusted – began to include statements like “Have you ever considered that these ‘uplifts’ of yours could be of help to a lot of people?” and, frequently, “These should be a book, Tim!” I’d thank them, of course, but basically demurred. I was basically keeping my head above water a day at a time. 

For quite a while, I was rolling out of bed at 5:30 or so to spend the hour or two researching and writing up the song of the day so that it would arrive in Eastern time zone people’s inboxes by 8:00 a.m. My astute wife eventually pointed out that it would be possible to do my research and writing the night before (ha! A Beatles title!), then send whenever I wanted. I can be a slow learner sometimes. I sent the last of the 260 essays out early in December, decided “Well, this is it,” but within a couple of months was thinking about transforming the whole body of work into a book.

EN: Have you ever published an eBook before? Did someone assist you on the "publishing" part or did you figure things out on your own using a guide of some sort? 

TH: I never had published an ebook before, so I spent several weeks researching and networking with people to help me understand and navigate the process. I got advice from several people, and ultimately hired attorney Len Rubin for advice about copyright issues and Bill Bonney of Last Mile Publishing to format and prepare my manuscript for publication as an ebook. I’ve written both of these guys to thank them for making the book a reality.

EN: What advice would you offer others who feel motivated to publish eBooks? 

TH: If you’re passionate about the project, go for it, with the understanding that there may be way more nuanced complexity to seeing the project through than you might expect. Without the pre-publication formatting help of an expert, I don’t know if the ebook ever would have happened. And my own experience is that unless you have some serious promotional advocates and strategies in place, keeping your expectations modest about sales on the Amazon site will be helpful. I still am very glad I wrote this book, and think it’s a good read for Beatles fans, but have been disappointed that it seems to be languishing, buried in the amazon site.

EN: What other music do you enjoy listening to? 

TH: Classic rock and Motown have always been go-to for me, but I listen to all kinds of music, including classical. In fact, I’ve told friends over the years that I think the most important course I took in college was a year-long history of music from Gregorian chant to electronic music. If I started naming all the groups and individual artists I have loved over the years – and still do – there would be a huge list here.

EN: What was your fave BOOK about the Beatles from all your readings and research?

TH: It has to be The Beatles Anthology, the massive compilation of primary source material from all four of the guys. In a sense, almost everything in my book was present in or alluded to there. The Beatles Bible website also was a terrific resource. I am a huge fan of many other Beatles authors/scholars, some of whom I’ve emailed with and/or spoken personally with at the 2022 Chicago Beatles Fest, where I presented about the book. I owe all of them for their expertise and generosity. 

Related Links

Hatfield, Tim. The Beatles: All their songs with encouraging words for challenging times. Kindle Edition

Remembering Phil Fitzpatrick

The Beatles' "Flying"--A Pocketful of Insights by Tim Hatfield 

Orwell On Media Mischief

Eric Blair, a.k.a. George Orwell

This year I have been on something of an Orwell jag. After reading 1984 and Animal Farm last year I dove into Thomas E. Ricks' Churchill and Orwell this spring, which ignited a renewed interest in reading more Orwell. According to Ricks, both Churchill and Orwell produced their best work at the end of their writing careers.

In the case of Orwell, the books 1984 and Animal Farm were his best, but Ricks cited Homage to Catalonia as a turning point. I thus purchased Homage to Catalonia, in part because of the Ricks endorsement and in part because of a recurring interest in the Spanish Civil War. 

But Ricks also noted that Orwell, whose birth name was Eric Blair, wrote innumerable essays in the twilight of his career. (He only lived to be 47.) Currently I have been dipping in to a collection of narrative essays assembled under the title Facing Unpleasant Facts.

The essay currently in my hands during my bedtime reading is titled Looking Back On The Spanish War. In the fourth section of the essay he discusses the manner in which the media cover events, not just the specificities of the Spanish conflict but media in general. It is no wonder that people are so misinformed, as all the events we read about are mediated to us. We are not there and so we rely on others to convey what is happening.

Here's what Orwell has to say about this.

The struggle for power between the Spanish Republican parties is an unhappy far off thing which I have no wish to revive at this date. I only mention it in order to say: believe nothing, or next to nothing, of what you read about internal affairs on the Government side. It is all, from whatever source, party propaganda--that is to say, lies.

A little further down the page he writes:

Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports that did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie.

I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traders, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing those lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various "party lines.”

These observations seemed to jump off the page in light of current events and a few experiences from my own lifetime. 

Something to think about.

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Related Links

Orwell's Homage to Catalonia Is Instructive on Many Levels, Plus a Good Read

Staying Human Is What Is Important

Bertrand Russell's Free Thought and Official Propaganda Has Much to Say about the Current State of Cancel Culture

He Who Controls the Narrative Controls the People