1984

Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct, nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.

- George Orwell, 1984

At eight o’clock this morning, VOCM’s website carried two very interesting stories, complete with the streamable audio files that the webmasters have, to their credit, been making increased use of lately:

Premier Says Inquiry Will Have The Money And Time Needed
May 14, 2008

Premier Danny Williams says the Cameron Inquiry will be given the time and money needed to complete their work…


Williams Comments On Gomrey Remarks
May 14, 2008

Premier Danny Williams isn't giving much attention to statements from retired Justice John Gomery who has suggested Williams has gone too far in…

The former had file name 28680, the latter, 28681. Even though VOCM news stories don’t always last on their website from the morning news cycle through to the afternoon, usually the texts are still available, if you know where and how to look — Google quite often turns them up — for a few days after posting.

Then, for a while just before noon, the station’s entire site went kablooie. When it came back online, the former file 28680 had been replaced in its entirety with:

Salmon Angling Season
May 14, 2008

The salmon angling season is only two and a half weeks away. It opens June 1st for all rivers in insular Newfoundland and June 15th in Labrador. A fall fishery will take place on the Gander River, Exploits River and Humber River from September 8th to October 7th. And DFO notes they will close rivers in instances of extreme environmental conditions.

and 28681 with:

RNC Street Drug Unit Makes Arrest
May 14, 2008

The RNC Street Drug Unit have arrested and charged a 23-year old Metro woman with drug offences. Police picked up the accused in St. John's west yesterday and charged her with trafficking in a controlled substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking. Constable Paul Davis says they seized what's believed to be prescription medication including oxycontin, percocet, ritalin and a quantiy of cocaine. The accused was released to appear in court in July.

The two former stories, quoting the Premier with text and audio, do not appear to have been re-assigned new file numbers, and can no longer be located in any form on the VOCM site.