Media outlets receive constant information from public and private interests who spin the messages in ever-interesting ways.

The challenge is to wade through the obfuscation from intentionally misleading messages.

Take a recent press release for the 鈥淧ersonal Information Protection and Electronic Document Act鈥� introduced by the federal government. It touted a deep concern for protection against the misuse of personal information, and the presser gushed that 鈥渢rust is indeed the linchpin of the digital economy.鈥�

That press release failed to mention that Statistics Canada officials were simultaneously and secretly trying to access Canadians鈥� personal banking information. It gave the release a sort of Orwellian doublespeak flavour.

This spring the federal Fisheries Department imposed crippling regulations that closed the doors of fishing operators in our region. The move was accompanied by a statement that said the government was taking the actions to 鈥減rotect the communities and jobs that depend on chinook survival.鈥�

In George Orwell鈥檚 1984 he defined 鈥渄oublethink鈥� as the ability to simultaneously hold two contradictory thoughts and believe both of them.

Fisheries nailed it.

Last year one of our Black Press publications received a statement from a local school official who admonished the editor for the use of the term anti-bullying.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 really love the label 鈥榓nti-bullying.鈥� We鈥檒l be advocating 鈥榢indness-promotion,鈥欌�� they said.

The language may have been politically correct, but did little to help the Grade 8 student whose experience with bullying was reported shortly thereafter. Apparently, the bullies didn鈥檛 get the kindness memo.

Then, this week, the Ministry of Education released a statement that acknowledged that there were mistakes in the Grade 12 exam marks they鈥檇 released. Their error had the potential of affecting the students鈥� quest for admission to post-secondary institutions.

But instead of admitting their mistake, the ministry blamed the situation on 鈥渁n anomaly in the tabulation of Grade 12 exam results.鈥�

The term 鈥渁nomaly鈥� was an interesting choice as it鈥檚 defined as a deviation from the norm.

More than 24 hours later, they finally copped to 鈥渉uman error鈥� as the cause. While unfortunate, human error amongst bureaucrats is far from anomalous.

It got us thinking. Despite the spin and warping of truth, it still matters. Facts do not cease to exist because they are hidden behind jargon and we all have a responsibility to seek the truth, even in today鈥檚 decidedly Orwellian times.