The Triumph of 'Truthiness'; How Emotion Drives Facts from the Debate
Byline: Suzanne Fields, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
With a rewrite of "1984" George Orwell might transform his Ministry of Truth, which controlled the news about everything, into the Ministry of Truthiness. Truthiness is far more powerful than mere truth. Orwell's Ministry of Truth grew out of his disenchantment with communism, his "God that failed." But truth was mere conspiracy; truthiness is consensus.
Truthiness is the amorphous cultural control that seeps into the public consciousness without anyone actually knowing or recognizing what's happening. The word "truthiness" was coined by the mock pundit Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central, and the word was designated by the American Dialect Society as the "word of the …
The rest of this article is only available to active members of Questia
Sign up now for a free, 1-day trial and receive full access to:
- Questia's entire collection
- Automatic bibliography creation
- More helpful research tools like notes, citations, and highlights
- Ad-free environment
Already a member? Log in now.
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Article title: The Triumph of 'Truthiness'; How Emotion Drives Facts from the Debate.
Contributors: Not available.
Newspaper title: The Washington Times (Washington, DC).
Publication date: January 30, 2006.
Page number: A19.
© 2009 The Washington Times LLC.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
One moment ...
- Georgia
- Arial
- Times New Roman
- Verdana
- Courier/monospaced
Reset