I'm Adi Cornish, and this is the assignment.

And here is a fact.

Democrats and Republicans in Congress can't agree on whether the government should continue to spend money on financial help for people who need it for their health insurance.

Hello, America. This is White House press secretary, Caroline Levitt.

Here's what you'd get if you call the White House comment line right now.

Democrats and Congress have shut down the federal government because they care more about funding health care for illegal immigrants than they care about serving you, the American people.

Covering a story like this is a nightmarish haze of talking points,

double speak, and rhetorical gamesmanship.

But honestly, the last couple of years have felt that way.

Which is probably why sales of George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 surged a few years ago.

And why the author's words still have resonance today.

The very concept of objective truth is fading out of this world.

I'm going to set down what I dare not say aloud to anyone.

And why Raul Peck, the documentarian behind the Oscar-nominated I Am Not Your Negro about James Baldwin,

has come to focus on Orwell for a new film. It's called Orwell, 2 plus 2 equals 5.

Because we have a number of people who wants you to believe that 2 plus 2 equals 5. And who can get you confused.

Because when it's a voice of authority,

who comes on TV and tells you, you know what,

as of today, 2 plus 2 equals 5.

And by the time you start to understand,

wait, wait a minute, that's not what I remember.

The time is gone and you're already submerged.

...