People may suspect they are living in an Orwellian media fever-dream when articles like this appear in Newsweek. Over the weekend, it was reported that former President Donald Trump was ‘greeted by loud boos at South Carolina Football Game’.

Other news outlets were more reserved in their assessment claiming, ‘Sounds like a mixture of boos and cheers.’ Although, maybe the viewer should view the footage for themselves and come to their own conclusion…

Former President Donald Trump and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster walk out onto the field during halftime at tonight's Palmetto Bowl game between in-state rivals, USC and Clemson. Sounds like a mix of cheers and boos from the video. >>> #scpol #scnews https://t.co/3I7Wck4yot

— Caitlin Byrd (@MaryCaitlinByrd) November 26, 2023

However, as pundits on social media such as Sky News Australia’s Rita Panahi have been quick to point out, the real response from people at the game was overwhelming supportive rather than denunciatory.

Don’t trust your lying eyes…or ears ?
pic.twitter.com/I8hoZQWVai https://t.co/JnXCUew3OE

— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) November 26, 2023

As the above video shows, not only do the majority of people appear to be cheering for Trump, they also started chanting ‘U-S-A’ … such is Trump’s popularity and identification with patriotism.

Sadly, incidents such as those above are not uncommon. George Orwell predicted this kind of situation in his dystopian novel 1984. At the penultimate point in the book Orwell wrote:

The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right.

While Orwell was able to accurately predict many of the totalitarian tendencies we are witnessing in the world today, what he didn’t foresee was the democratisation of media. That through the means of technology every citizen had the potential to be a journalist.

These citizen journalists were a large part of the reason why Donald Trump was elected President the first time around. But it’s as if the media have not learnt a thing because anyone with a camera phone – and that’s now basically everyone – can immediately do a ‘fact check’ and then publish a different version of events.

If the so-called ‘reporting’ over the weekend is anything to go by then the mainstream media will once again be Trump’s greatest asset.