Newspapers (and news in general) have suffered falls in circulation since the mid 1990's. Part of the reason for this probably has to do with the codification of news-speak, such that we witness story summaries like:

Beijing issues stinging rebuke after Washington slapped anti-dumping duties on $2.6bn of Chinese steel pipe imports.

-- FT, 2009-11-07,

News-speak surrounds useful information with inflammatory language that clouds the issues. Removing the ueber-maudlin and cliche'd:

Beijing unhappy after Washington applied anti-dumping duties to $2.6bn of Chinese steel pipe imports.

This reduction impels us to ask how is Beijing unhappy; incorporating the first three paragraphs:

Beijing promises vague counter-measures after Washington applied anti-dumping duties to $2.6bn of Chinese steel pipe imports.

This exposes more of the matter, as China still has an export-driven economy and needs US consumption $$$, so China can only make vague noises until it finds a good solution.

Somewhere along the line we ended up with this corruption, and it appears endemic. Orwell seems to have been slightly off, instead of removing negatives, we've cranked up the emotional content.