40 Years Ago To The Day, Doctor Who Predicted Alternative Facts

Conway’s startling claim, which flies in the face of what a fact is, as Merriam-Webster pointed out later that day, left many mouths agape due to its shamelessness. But its very concept is not new. George Orwell, author of the anti-authoritarian dystopian novel “1984,” wrote in his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language” about the misuse of words by the powerful to distract citizens from objective truth:

Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
But there is actually another, more recent quote that more accurately describes the underlying issue at hand with Conway’s “alternative facts” phrasing. And of all places, it appeared on the British sci-fi show “Doctor Who” exactly 40 years to the day before Conway’s appearance on “Meet the Press.”

In “The Face of Evil: Part Four,” which premiered on Jan. 22, 1977, the Doctor tries to make peace between the Saveteem and Tesh tribes. In the middle of the episode, the Doctor tells his future companion Leela:

You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit the views.