The phrase sits like a half-smoked cigarette in a cracked ashtray, still giving off heat decades after it was first muttered into the bloodstream of public discourse. “Never believe anything until it’s been officially denied,” declared John Pilger, a man who built a career rummaging through the filing cabinets of power and finding them suspiciously light on truth. It is not so much a quote as it is a working instruction manual for modern citizenship. In an age of polished podiums, smiling briefings, and the faint hum of crisis