# Quotes about media

- Quotes: 182
- Authors: 88
- Broader topic: [Quotes about society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md)
- Narrower topics: [television](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television.md), [advertising](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/advertising.md), [information](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/information.md), [journalism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/journalism.md)
- Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media
- JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.json

## Quotes

> Drummer had read somewhere that newsfeeds were where secular societies went to find out what cultural narratives were important and what could be ignored.

[James S. A. Corey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey.md) · [Persepolis Rising](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/persepolis-rising.md) · p. 247 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/persepolis-rising/drummer-had-read.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Nothing is more comforting to people than to have their certainties trumpeted back to them in bold, clear typeface.

[Jeffrey Ford](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-ford.md) · [The Empire of Ice Cream](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-ford/the-empire-of-ice-cream.md) · p. 291 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeffrey-ford/the-empire-of-ice-cream/nothing-is-more.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [beliefs](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beliefs.md)

> Journalists should treat fringe scientific claims with considerable skepticism and find out what major peer-reviewed papers or assessments have to say about them. Moreover, they should adhere to the principle that the more outlandish or dramatic the claim, the more skepticism it warrants.

[Chris Mooney](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chris-mooney.md) · [The Republican War on Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chris-mooney/the-republican-war-on-science.md) · p. 253 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chris-mooney/the-republican-war-on-science/journalists-should-treat.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [skepticism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/skepticism.md)

> They can extinguish awareness by dumbing down education, owning TV stations, paying "guest fees" to leader writers, or just buying the media up. The media—and not just The Washington Post—is where democracies conduct their civil wars.

[David Mitchell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell.md) · [Cloud Atlas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas.md) · p. 124 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-mitchell/cloud-atlas/they-can-extinguish.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [democracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy.md)

> The news was highly coloured, even if the print was black and white.

[Genevieve Cogman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/genevieve-cogman.md) · [The Lost Plot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/genevieve-cogman/the-lost-plot.md) · p. 118 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/genevieve-cogman/the-lost-plot/the-news-was.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The problem is with the weekly magazines. Their freelancers or journalists or whatever you call them will start circling like sharks smelling blood. They’re all good at what they do, and once they latch on, they don’t let go. Their livelihood depends on it, after all. They can’t afford to have little things like good taste or people’s privacy stand in their way.

[Haruki Murakami](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami.md) · [1Q84](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84.md) · p. 378 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/1q84/the-problem-is-with.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [privacy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/privacy.md)

> Dr. Walid’s theory was that the news media and their consumers unconsciously shied away from events that didn’t fall within the narrow band of their expectations. Shot by a jealous lover or stabbed by a body were narratives they could run with. Killed in an unspecified manner with no witnesses, no CCTV, and no obvious motive probably piqued their curiosity, but would it get clicks or sell papers? More importantly, would it fit the news agenda their organization worked to?

[Ben Aaronovitch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch.md) · [Amongst Our Weapons](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/amongst-our-weapons.md) · p. 238 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/amongst-our-weapons/dr-walids-theory.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> There were a couple of mentions of drones, but the assumption was that they were operated by the police, the gangs, space lizards or all three at once. The media were continuing their comforting lack of interest in things that didn’t fit their various agendas.

[Ben Aaronovitch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch.md) · [False Value](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/false-value.md) · p. 139 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/false-value/there-were-a-couple.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> “The timing might not be significant,” I said. “Just because two things happen at the same time doesn’t mean they’re related.”
>
> Abigail gave me a withering look. But everyone assumes causation when they should be thinking coincidence, and correlation when they should be asking whether Twitter is really a reliable source of information.

[Ben Aaronovitch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch.md) · [False Value](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/false-value.md) · p. 144 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/false-value/the-timing-might.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [chance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance.md)

> The media always calls this sort of thing senseless, but the motive made sense—it was just stupid, is what it was.

[Ben Aaronovitch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch.md) · [The Hanging Tree](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/the-hanging-tree.md) · p. 112 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/the-hanging-tree/the-media-always.md)

Topics: [stupidity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The Daily Mail had the scoop but the media had caught the smell of blood in the water and twenty-four-hour news outlets were running the bulletin every half an hour, with a teaser on the quarter in case your attention span was that short.

[Ben Aaronovitch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch.md) · [Foxglove Summer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/foxglove-summer.md) · p. 251 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/foxglove-summer/the-daily-mail.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [attention](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/attention.md)

> Have you noticed that about journalists—all they really want to talk about is themselves.

[Ben Aaronovitch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch.md) · [Moon Over Soho](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/moon-over-soho.md) · p. 273 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/moon-over-soho/have-you-noticed.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness.md)

> There were screams and yells from the street below as people saw what was happening. There would be lots of phone-camera footage on the news that night from people with more media-savvy than brains.

[Ben Aaronovitch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch.md) · [Moon Over Soho](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/moon-over-soho.md) · p. 275 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/moon-over-soho/there-were-screams.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [stupidity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Nobody likes a riot except looters and journalists.

[Ben Aaronovitch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch.md) · [Rivers of London](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/rivers-of-london.md) · p. 245 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/rivers-of-london/nobody-likes-a-riot.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Nobody had a clue what had happened, so the pundits were out in force, explaining how the riot was caused by whatever sociopolitical factor their latest book was pushing. It was certainly a searing indictment of some aspect of modern society—if only we knew what.

[Ben Aaronovitch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch.md) · [Rivers of London](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/rivers-of-london.md) · p. 268 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/rivers-of-london/nobody-had-a-clue.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> There were always people eager for attention who were happy to confirm whatever explanation the reporters wanted, so long as he gave them their fifteen minutes of fame.

[Jim C. Hines](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines.md) · [Codex Born](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines/codex-born.md) · p. 366 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jim-c-hines/codex-born/there-were-always.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [fame](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fame.md)

> The Sunday supplements of the New York papers played up the case with fascinating sketches which showed the head of Benjamin Button attached to a fish, to a snake, and, finally, to a body of solid brass. He became known, journalistically, as the Mystery Man of Maryland. But the true story, as is usually the case, had a very small circulation.

[F.Scott Fitzgerald](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald.md) · [The Curious Case of Benjamin Button](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/the-curious-case-of-benjamin-button.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/the-curious-case-of-benjamin-button/the-sunday-supplements.md)

Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Scientists are trained to not give absolute answers. It is interesting that in recent years, some have started to do so when talking with the media, because they've learned that whenever they include the very scientific words possibly, perhaps, and uncertainty, their conclusions are interpreted by the media and public as simple guesswork.

[Greg Craven](https://www.leafyquotes.com/greg-craven.md) · [What's the Worst That Could Happen?](https://www.leafyquotes.com/greg-craven/whats-the-worst-that-could-happen.md) · p. 41 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/greg-craven/whats-the-worst-that-could-happen/scientists-are-trained.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The media has saturated the legal environment. With the Internet, Facebook, YouTube, there’s no such thing as an unbiased jury anymore. No clean slate. Eighty, ninety percent of the case is decided before you get in the court room. So why not use it—control the story.

[Gillian Flynn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gillian-flynn.md) · [Gone Girl](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gillian-flynn/gone-girl.md) · p. 312 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gillian-flynn/gone-girl/the-media-has.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [courts](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courts.md)

> It’s the usual sensation mongering; the news services will say anything for an effect.

[Charles Sheffield](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield.md) · [Sight of Proteus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/sight-of-proteus.md) · p. 73 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/sight-of-proteus/its-the-usual.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> There's not a branch of publishing or broadcasting that doesn't depend in some way on advertising. It'd be like an aquarium without water. Why, ninety-five percent of the information that reaches you has already been preselected and paid for.

[Haruki Murakami](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami.md) · [A Wild Sheep Chase](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/a-wild-sheep-chase.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/a-wild-sheep-chase/theres-not-a-branch.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [advertising](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/advertising.md)

> Don’t believe anything on the news feeds. It’s all just a circus for the masses.

[Emma Newman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman.md) · [After Atlas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman/after-atlas.md) · p. 330 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman/after-atlas/dont-believe-anything.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [manipulation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation.md)

> I know enough to never take journalists at their word.

[Emma Newman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman.md) · [After Atlas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman/after-atlas.md) · p. 231 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/emma-newman/after-atlas/i-know-enough.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [trust](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/trust.md)

> Even the most superficial of a newspaper reveals an important aspect of human psychology: our preoccupation with the short term.

[John Allen Paulos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos.md) · [A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos/a-mathematician-reads-the-newspaper.md) · p. 96 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos/a-mathematician-reads-the-newspaper/even-the-most.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [the present](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present.md), [psychology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/psychology.md)

> The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It is their function to amuse, entertain, inform, and to inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfil this role requires systematic propaganda.

[Edward S. Herman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-s-herman.md) · [Manufacturing Consent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-s-herman/manufacturing-consent.md) · p. 1 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-s-herman/manufacturing-consent/the-mass-media.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md)

> Innumerate people characteristically have a strong tendency to personalize—to be misled by their own experiences, or by the media’s focus on individuals and drama.

[John Allen Paulos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos.md) · [Innumeracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos/innumeracy.md) · p. 6 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos/innumeracy/innumerate-people-characteristically.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/experience.md), [statistics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/statistics.md)

> If publicity was the lifeblood of terrorists, the week-long siege of the hotel had been a massive transfusion.

[Shamini Flint](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shamini-flint.md) · [Inspector Singh Investigates: A Curious Indian Cadaver](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shamini-flint/inspector-singh-investigates-a-curious-indian-cadaver.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/shamini-flint/inspector-singh-investigates-a-curious-indian-cadaver/if-publicity-was.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [terrorism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/terrorism.md)

> Little wonder that the dumbing down of the political discourse, the attack ads and war rooms reign triumphant. The fifth estate is an enabler in this addiction to political trivia in place of reasoned debate.

[Elizabeth May](https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-may.md) · [Losing Confidence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-may/losing-confidence.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-may/losing-confidence/little-wonder-that.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> We Canadians think that Canada is a modern, well informed democracy. We look down our noses at the dumbed down content on Fox News and CNN, without noticing that we are rapidly heading in the same direction.

[Elizabeth May](https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-may.md) · [Losing Confidence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-may/losing-confidence.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-may/losing-confidence/we-canadians-think.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [democracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy.md)

> News is, by definition, bad news.

[John Varley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-varley.md) · [Millennium](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-varley/millennium.md) · p. 52 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-varley/millennium/news-is-by-definition.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The lesson is clear: estimates of causes of death are warped by media coverage. [...] The world in our heads is not a precise replica of reality; our expectations about the frequency of events are distorted by the prevalence and emotional intensity of the messages to which we are exposed.

[Daniel Kahneman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-kahneman.md) · [Thinking, Fast and Slow](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-kahneman/thinking-fast-and-slow.md) · p. 138 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-kahneman/thinking-fast-and-slow/the-lesson-is-clear.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [reality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reality.md)

> Journalistic content is a technical complex expressly intended to adapt man to the machine.

[Jacques Ellul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul.md) · [The Technological Society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/the-technological-society.md) · p. 96 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jacques-ellul/the-technological-society/journalistic-content-is-a-technical.md)

Topics: [technology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> “The media have gone berserk.”
>
> “The media always go berserk. A kid falls off a bike in Montana, they’re all over it. Until something else happens.”

[Jack Mcdevitt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt.md) · [Odyssey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt/odyssey.md) · p. 292 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt/odyssey/the-media-have.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Plato is correct about democracy. It is essentially mob rule. And once the mob gets an idea into its collective head, it’s almost impossible to get it out, or modify it in any way. In an era of mass communication and irresponsible media, it can be a deadly characteristic.

[Jack Mcdevitt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt.md) · [Odyssey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt/odyssey.md) · p. 289 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-mcdevitt/odyssey/plato-is-correct.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [democracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy.md), [crowd](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/crowd.md)

> It worries me because it alters perception. TV, and the culture it anchors, and drowns out the subtle and vital information contact with the real world once provided.

[Bill McKibben](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-mckibben.md) · [The Age of Missing Information](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-mckibben/the-age-of-missing-information.md) · p. 22 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-mckibben/the-age-of-missing-information/it-worries-me-because.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts. The fact of being on the record makes it appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic both in time and place. Besides, persistence of the normal is usually greater than the effect of the disturbance, as we know from our own times. After absorbing the news of today, one expects to face a world consisting entirely of strikes, crimes, power failures, broken water mains, stalled trains, school shutdowns, muggers, drug addicts, neo-Nazis, and rapists. The fact is that one can come home in the evening—on a lucky day—without having encountered more than one or two of these phenomena. This has led me to formulate Tuchman's Law, as follows: "The fact of being reported multiplies the apparent extent of any deplorable development by five- to tenfold" (or any figure the reader would care to supply).

[Barbara W. Tuchman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman.md) · [A Distant Mirror](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror/disaster-is-rarely.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> What counts is not so much the fact as what the public perceives to be the fact.

[Barbara W. Tuchman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman.md) · [A Distant Mirror](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror.md) · p. 291 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/barbara-w-tuchman/a-distant-mirror/what-counts-is-not.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [appearances](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearances.md)

> People believe almost anything they see in print.

[E. B. White](https://www.leafyquotes.com/e-b-white.md) · [Charlotte's Web](https://www.leafyquotes.com/e-b-white/charlottes-web.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/e-b-white/charlottes-web/people-believe-almost.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [naivety](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/naivety.md)

> If “media” is the plural of “medium” the question is: how many of them are fraudulent?

[John Brunner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner.md) · [The Jagged Orbit](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-jagged-orbit.md) · p. 57 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-jagged-orbit/if-media-is-the.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Watching their sets in a kind of trance
>
> were people in Mexico, people in France.
>
> They don't chase Jones but the dreams are the same —
>
> Mr. and Mrs. Everywhere, that's the right name!
>
> Herr und Frau Uberall or les Partout,
>
> A gadget on the set makes them look like you. When the Everywhere couple crack a joke
>
> It's laughed at by all right-thinking folk.
>
> When the Everywhere couple adopt a pose
>
> It's the with-it view as everyone knows.
>
> It may be a rumor or it may be true
>
> But a gadget on the set has it said by you! "What do you think about Yatakang?"
>
> "I think the same as the Everywhere gang."
>
> "What do you think of Beninia then?"
>
> "The Everywheres will tell me but I don't know when."
>
> Whatever my country and whatever my name
>
> A gadget on the set makes me think the same.

[John Brunner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner.md) · [Stand On Zanzibar](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar/watching-their-sets.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [conformity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity.md)

> I don’t hate her personally, though if she were enough of a person to be worth such a strong emotion I think I easily could. What I hate is what she represents: the willingness of human beings to be reduced to a slick visual package, like a new television set—up-to-the-minute casing, same old works.

[John Brunner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner.md) · [Stand On Zanzibar](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar/i-dont-hate.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [appearances](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearances.md)

> We’re aware of the scale of the planet, so we don’t accept that our own circumscribed horizons constitute reality. Much more real is what’s relayed to us by the TV.

[John Brunner](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner.md) · [Stand On Zanzibar](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar/were-aware-of-the.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The secret language of statistics, so appealing in a fact-minded culture, is employed to sensationalize, inflate, confuse, and oversimplify. Statistical methods and statistical terms are necessary in reporting the mass data of social and economic trends, business conditions, "opinion" polls, the census. But without writers who use the words with honesty and understanding and readers who know what they mean, the result can only be semantic nonsense.

[Darrell Huff](https://www.leafyquotes.com/darrell-huff.md) · [How to Lie with Statistics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/darrell-huff/how-to-lie-with-statistics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/darrell-huff/how-to-lie-with-statistics/the-secret-language.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> What comes full of virtue from the statistician's desk may find itself twisted, exaggerated, oversimplified, and distorted-through-selection by salesman, public-relations expert, journalist, or advertising copywriter. [...] As long as the errors remain one-sided, it is not easy to attribute them to bungling and accident.

[Darrell Huff](https://www.leafyquotes.com/darrell-huff.md) · [How to Lie with Statistics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/darrell-huff/how-to-lie-with-statistics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/darrell-huff/how-to-lie-with-statistics/what-comes-full.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [manipulation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation.md)

> What is the dominant motive experience at the end of the twentieth century? How do people see things, and how do they expect to see things? The answer is simple. In every field, from business to politics to marketing to education, the dominant mode has become entertainment.

[Michael Crichton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton.md) · [Timeline](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline.md) · p. 442 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline/what-is-the.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Today, everybody expects to be entertained, and they expect to be entertained all the time. Business meetings must be snappy, with bullet lists and animated graphics, so executives aren’t bored. Malls and stores must be engaging, so they amuse as well as sell us. Politicians must have pleasing video personalities and tell us only what we want to hear. Schools must be careful not to bore young minds that expect the speed and complexity of television. Students must be amused—everyone must be amused, or they will switch: switch brands, switch channels, switch parties, switch loyalties. This is the intellectual reality of western society at the end of the century.

[Michael Crichton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton.md) · [Timeline](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline.md) · p. 443 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline/today-everybody-expects.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [boredom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/boredom.md)

> ’Because it means the end of innovation,’ Malcolm said. ‘This idea that the whole world is wired together is mass death. Every biologist knows that small groups in isolation evolve fastest. You put a thousand birds on an ocean island and they’ll evolve very fast. You put ten thousand on a big continent, and their evolution slows down. Now, for our own species, evolution occurs mostly through our behavior. We innovate new behavior to adapt. And everybody on earth knows that innovation only occurs in small groups. Put three people on a committee and they may get something done. Ten people, and it get harder. Thirty people, and nothing happens. Thirty million, it becomes impossible. That’s the effect of mass media—it keeps anything from happening. Mass media swamps diversity. It makes every place the same… Regional differences vanish. All differences vanish. In a mass-media world, there’s less of everything except the top ten books, records, movies, ideas. People worry about losing species diversity in the rain forest. But what about intellectual diversity—our most necessary resource. That’s disappearing faster than trees.

[Michael Crichton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton.md) · [The Lost World](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/the-lost-world.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/the-lost-world/because-it-means.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [creativity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/creativity.md), [diversity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/diversity.md)

> TV is unbalanced—if I own a TV station, and you own a television, I can speak to you, but you can’t speak to me. Phones, by contrast, are balanced; if you buy the means of consumption, you automatically own the means of production. When you purchase a phone, no one asks if you just want to listen, or if you want to talk on it too. Participation is inherent in the phone, and it’s the same for the computer. When you buy a machine that lets you consume digital content, you also buy a machine to produce it. Further, you can share material with your friends, and you can talk about what you consumed or produced or shared. These aren’t additional features; they are part of the basic package.

[Clay Shirky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clay-shirky.md) · [Cognitive Surplus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clay-shirky/cognitive-surplus.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clay-shirky/cognitive-surplus/tv-is-unbalanced-if.md)

Topics: [technology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> But these were mere passing irritants. Deeper were the systemic troubles. She stressed the many unknowns; the media wanted sharp answers to huge questions, preferably in a compact one-liner. She tried to emphasize the progressive questioning of her method and how all answers were provisional, awaiting confirmation; reporters liked zippy adventure and exciting guesses with, of course, striking visuals in primary colors.

[Gregory Benford](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford.md) · [Cosm](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/cosm.md) · p. 243 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/cosm/but-these-were.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Media bloomed with florid discussions between completely uninformed people about every detail imaginable.

[Gregory Benford](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford.md) · [The Martian Race](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/the-martian-race.md) · p. 329 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/the-martian-race/media-bloomed-with.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [ignorance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ignorance.md)

> All the astronauts were easy on the eyes. No coincidence. NASA didn’t train people the public wouldn’t want to watch.

[Gregory Benford](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford.md) · [The Martian Race](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/the-martian-race.md) · p. 87 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/the-martian-race/all-the-astronauts.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [appearance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearance.md)

> Prolonged exposure to journalists made her distrust any news report; they got matters wrong so casually, even the simple ones.

[Gregory Benford](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford.md) · [Cosm](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/cosm.md) · p. 242 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/cosm/prolonged-exposure-to-journalists.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Somehow to them, the press was always the judge of things scientific.

[Gregory Benford](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford.md) · [Timescape](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/timescape.md) · p. 236 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/timescape/somehow-to-them.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> You should never fall in love with your own press clippings, because it is very much the nature of the beast that the same journalists who build you up between Monday and Friday tear you down for weekend fun...My family's habit of living in the past seems to me pathological, even dangerous. If all greatness lies in the past, what is the point of the future?

[Stephen L. Carter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-l-carter.md) · [The Emperor of Ocean Park](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-l-carter/the-emperor-of-ocean-park.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-l-carter/the-emperor-of-ocean-park/you-should-never.md)

Topics: [the past](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [fame](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fame.md)

> The difference between news and gossip-News tells you what people did, gossip tells you how much they enjoyed it.

[Gregory David Roberts](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts.md) · [Shantaram](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/the-difference-between.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [gossip](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gossip.md)

> Feedback loops, echo chambers, circular reinforcement. All could play a part in escalating the utterly imaginary to the level of reality, sometimes with fatal consequences.

[Jasper Fforde](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde.md) · [Early Riser](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/early-riser.md) · p. 116 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/early-riser/feedback-loops-echo.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [manipulation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation.md)

> My father said it was a delightfully odd—and dangerously self-destructive—quirk of humans that we were far more interested in pointless trivia then in genuine news stories.

[Jasper Fforde](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde.md) · [Lost in a Good Book](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/lost-in-a-good-book.md) · p. 141 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/lost-in-a-good-book/my-father-said.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [curiosity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/curiosity.md)

> At the moment false claims spread on social media far faster than the truth, because of the algorithms that spread outraging material faster and further.

[Johann Hari](https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-hari.md) · [Stolen Focus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-hari/stolen-focus.md) · p. 129 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/johann-hari/stolen-focus/at-the-moment.md)

Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Can you be happy with the movies, and the ads, and the clothes in the stores, and the doctors, and the eyes as you walk down the street all telling you there is something wrong with you? No. You cannot be happy. Because, you poor darling baby, you believe them.

[Katherine Dunn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/katherine-dunn.md) · [Geek Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/katherine-dunn/geek-love.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/katherine-dunn/geek-love/can-you-be-happy.md)

Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [appearance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearance.md)

> In the war to come correspondents would assume unheard of importance, plunging through flame to feed the public its little gobbets of dehydrated excrement.

[Malcolm Lowry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/malcolm-lowry.md) · [Under the Volcano](https://www.leafyquotes.com/malcolm-lowry/under-the-volcano.md) · p. 157 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/malcolm-lowry/under-the-volcano/in-the-war.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> I also bought a copy of The New York Times, the previous day's issue of which I had seen the previous day in Puerto Rico. I was interested in newspapers and knew this paper to be one of the foremost in the world. But to read a newspaper for the first time is like coming into a film that has been on for an hour. Newspapers are like serials. To understand them you have to take knowledge to them; the knowledge that serves best is the knowledge provided by the newspaper itself. It made me feel a stranger, that paper.

[V. S. Naipaul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/v-s-naipaul.md) · [The Enigma of Arrival](https://www.leafyquotes.com/v-s-naipaul/the-enigma-of-arrival.md) · p. 115 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/v-s-naipaul/the-enigma-of-arrival/i-also-bought.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> I myself was to experience how easily one is taken in by a lying and censored press and radio in a totalitarian state.

[William L. Shirer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-l-shirer.md) · [Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-l-shirer/rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-l-shirer/rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich/i-myself-was.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md), [totalitarianism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/totalitarianism.md)

> The newspapers extolled every skirmish as one Bonaparte would have admired (clumsy propaganda, in a province that had never reconciled itself to the French revolution), but anyone who believed all the newspapers said deserved nothing better than he got.

[Harry Turtledove](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove.md) · [The Great War: Walk in Hell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell.md) · p. 219 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell/the-newspapers-extolled.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md)

> The paper was shipped up from the USA, and full of lies; since the demise of the Rosenfeld Register (which had been only half full of lies), no local paper had been permitted. But even lies could be interesting if they were new lies: why else did people read so many books and magazines?

[Harry Turtledove](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove.md) · [The Great War: Walk in Hell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell.md) · p. 463 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-walk-in-hell/the-paper-was.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> We can imagine that Thamus [or Amun: this is a reference to a discussion on the value of writing in Plato's Phaedrus] would also have pointed out to Gutenberg, as he did to Theuth, that the new invention would create a vast population of readers who "will receive a quantity of information without proper instruction... with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom"; that reading, in other words, will compete with older forms of learning. This is yet another principle of technological change we may infer from the judgment of Thamus: new technologies compete with old ones — for time, for attention, for money, for prestige, but mostly for dominance of their world-view. This competition is implicit once we acknowledge that the medium contains an ideological bias. And it is a fierce competition, as only ideological competitions can be. It is not merely a matter of tool against tool — the alphabet attacking ideographic writing, the printing press attacking the illuminated manuscript, the photograph attacking the art of painting, television attacking the printed word. When media make war against each other, it is a case of world-views in collision.

[Neil Postman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman.md) · [Technopoly](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/technopoly.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/technopoly/we-can-imagine.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [technological progress](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technological-progress.md)

> It did not take long to find out that Earth was no different from Phobos. People on Earth engaged in ritual repetition; most of them thought as little as possible; most of them occupied themselves with things and events that were not very important. Amusement stage dramas were the same as the ones I had seen on Phobos. All music had been so extensively filtered, corrected, and augmented by technology that it all sounded alike. Singing voices were improved by electronic means, as were the faces, the bodies, and the dramatic ability of actors and actresses. No one was plain; no one was allowed to be ugly; no one was very different from anyone else. In school, the stupid students got the same grades as the smart ones except for the tiny secret marks the educational archivists made in their records – in case a VIP needed a truthful reference.

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Margarets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets.md) · p. 86 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets/it-did-not.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [conformity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity.md), [culture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture.md)

> “Anything interesting in the paper?”
>
> “Some tragedy, some comedy, nothing that’ll matter in a hundred years,” I said.

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Margarets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets.md) · p. 238 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-margarets/anything-interesting-in-the.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> “Why do reporters have to dig into people’s privacy?” she fumed.
>
> “Communication is much like sex.”
>
> This set her back. “I don’t understand...”
>
> A chuckle. “Being celibate is often wise and prudent. People know this, but the inborn drive to reproduce makes their organs wag. Keeping silent is often wise and prudent. People know this, also, but the drive to question and tell makes their tongues wag. Sex spreads genetic material, good and bad; prying spreads information, true and false; natural selection takes over and both ethical failings contribute to continuing evolution.”

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Fresco](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco.md) · p. 145 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco/why-do-reporters.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [gossip](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gossip.md), [privacy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/privacy.md)

> Thinking it over later, she blamed TV and the movies for her immediate reaction. The media gobbled everything that happened or could happen, then spit it out, over and over, every idea regurgitated, every concept so mushed up that when anything remarkable actually occurred it was already a cliché. Like cloning or surrogate mothers or extraterrestrials and UFOs. The whole world had heard about it and seen movies about it, and had become bored with the subject before it even happened!

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Fresco](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco.md) · p. 8 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco/thinking-it-over.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> England looked strange to us returned soldiers. We could not understand the war madness that ran about everywhere, looking for a pseudo-military outlet. The civilians talked a foreign language; and it was newspaper language.

[Robert Graves](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves.md) · [Goodbye to All That](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/goodbye-to-all-that.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/goodbye-to-all-that/england-looked-strange.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Jane was a child of the media age, and there lurked in the back of her mind the instinctive belief that if a thing wasn't on the news, it couldn't really have happened after all.

[Tom Holt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-holt.md) · [Flying Dutch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-holt/flying-dutch.md) · p. 203 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-holt/flying-dutch/jane-was-a-child.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The good side of the world media village was the sense it gave ten billion that each of them had at least some small connection with the whole. The bad side was that no one ever encountered anything, anymore, that was completely new.

[David Brin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin.md) · [Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/earth.md) · p. 245 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/earth/the-good-side.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> "The truth is whatever you can get away with."
>
> "No, that’s journalism. The truth is whatever you can’t escape."

[Greg Egan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/greg-egan.md) · [Distress](https://www.leafyquotes.com/greg-egan/distress.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/greg-egan/distress/the-truth-is-whatever.md)

Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Canned laughter: After some supposedly funny or witty remark you can hear the laughter and applause included in the soundtrack of the show itself - here we have the exact counterpart of the Chorus in classical tragedy; it is here that we have to look for 'living Antiquity.' That is to say, why this laughter? The first possible answer - that it serves to remind us when to laugh - is interesting enough, because it implies the paradox that laughter is a matter of duty and not of some spontaneous feeling; but this answer is not sufficient because we do not usually laugh. The only correct answer would be that the Other - embodied in the television set - is relieving us even of our duty to laugh - is instead laughing for us. So even if, tired from a hard days stupid work, all evening we did nothing but gaze drowsily into the television screen, we can say afterwards that objectively, through the medium of the other, we had a really good time.

[Slavoj Žižek](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek.md) · [The Sublime Object of Ideology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/slavoj-zizek/the-sublime-object-of-ideology/canned-laughter-after.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [laughter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/laughter.md)

> 'And we're not just talking executions here—were talking the ultimate reality TV, where the public can monitor, via cable or internet, prisoners' whole lives on death row. They can live amongst them, so to speak, and make up their own minds about a convict's worthiness for punishment. Then each week, viewers across the globe can cast a vote to decide which prisoner is executed next. It's humanity in action—the next logical step toward true democracy.'

[DBC Pierre](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre.md) · [Vernon God Little](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre/vernon-god-little.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre/vernon-god-little/and-were-not.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [capital punishment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capital-punishment.md)

> Facts may seem black and white by the time they hit your TV screen, but professional teams sift through mountains of gray to get them there.

[DBC Pierre](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre.md) · [Vernon God Little](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre/vernon-god-little.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre/vernon-god-little/facts-may-seem.md)

Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Billy turned on his television set, clicking its channel selector around and around. He was looking for programs on which he might be allowed to appear. But it was too early in the evening for programs that allowed people with peculiar opinions to speak out. It was only a little after eight o’clock, so all the shows were about silliness or murder. So it goes. (pp. 199-200)

[Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut.md) · [Slaughterhouse-Five](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/slaughterhouse-five/billy-turned-on-his.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Far from affording artists continuous inspiration, mass-media sources for art have become a dead end. They have combined with the abstractness of institutional art teaching to produce a fine-arts culture given over to information and not experience. This faithfully echoes the drain of concreteness from modern existence— the reign of mere unassimilated data instead of events that gain meaning by being absorbed into the fabric of imaginative life.

[Robert Hughes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes.md) · [Nothing If Not Critical](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/nothing-if-not-critical.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-hughes/nothing-if-not-critical/far-from-affording.md)

Topics: [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> News is what a chap who doesn't care much about anything wants to read. And it's only news until he's read it. After that it's dead.

[Evelyn Waugh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh.md) · [Scoop](https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/scoop.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/scoop/news-is-what.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> "The Beast stands for strong mutually antagonistic governments everywhere," he said. "Self-sufficiency at home, self-assertion abroad."

[Evelyn Waugh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh.md) · [Scoop](https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/scoop.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/scoop/the-beast-stands.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [irony](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/irony.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> ...even more ominous … is the fact that since the Second World War a new kind of intellectual has emerged in large numbers. … he is only minimally interested in the proper intellectual significance of images and objects. Such people are not really intellectuals, but visuals … A visual is more interested in style than in content … A visual does not feel a rioting crowd being machine-gunned by the police, he simply sees a brilliant news photograph.

[John Fowles](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles.md) · [The Aristos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles/the-aristos.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles/the-aristos/even-more-ominous.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [intellectuals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intellectuals.md)

> The danger in media concentration comes not from the concentration, but instead from the feudalism that this concentration, tied to the change in copyright, produces. It is not just that there are a few powerful companies that control an ever expanding slice of the media. It is that this concentration can call upon an equally bloated range of rights — property rights of a historically extreme form — that makes their bigness bad.

[Lawrence Lessig](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig.md) · [Free Culture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/the-danger-in-media.md)

Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Once the spark was struck the story would spread like wildfire, and would be in the papers in next to no time. The Director had never had any cause to think highly of newspaper reporters, particularly of their scientific accuracy.

[Fred Hoyle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fred-hoyle.md) · [The Black Cloud](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fred-hoyle/the-black-cloud.md) · p. 24 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fred-hoyle/the-black-cloud/once-the-spark.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The tenth Muse who now governs the periodical press.

[Anthony Trollope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope.md) · [The Warden](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/the-warden.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/the-warden/the-tenth-muse.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Any rich, unprogressive old party with that particularly grasping, acquisitive form of mentality known as financial genius can own a paper that is the intellectual meat and drink of thousands of tired, hurried men, men too involved in the business of modern living to swallow anything but predigested food. For two cents the voter buys his politics, prejudices, and philosophy.

[F.Scott Fitzgerald](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald.md) · [This Side of Paradise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/this-side-of-paradise.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/this-side-of-paradise/any-rich-unprogressive.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [money](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Look at you; you're on The New Democracy, considered the most brilliant weekly in the country, read by the men who do things and all that. What's your business? Why, to be as clever, as interesting, and as brilliantly cynical as possible about every man, doctrine, book, or policy that is assigned you to deal with. The more strong lights, the more spiritual scandal you can throw on the matter, the more money they pay you, the more the people buy the issue.

[F.Scott Fitzgerald](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald.md) · [This Side of Paradise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/this-side-of-paradise.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/this-side-of-paradise/look-at-you.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [cynicism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cynicism.md)

> The press to-day is an army with carefully organized arms and branches, with journalists as officers, and readers as soldiers. But here, as in every army, the soldier obeys blindly, and war-aims and operation-plans change without his knowledge. The reader neither knows, nor is allowed to know, the purposes for which he is used, nor even the role that he is to play. A more appalling caricature of freedom of thought cannot be imagined. Formerly a man did not dare to think freely. Now he dares, but cannot; his will to think is only a willingness to think to order, and this is what he feels as his liberty.

[Oswald Spengler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/oswald-spengler.md) · [The Decline of the West](https://www.leafyquotes.com/oswald-spengler/the-decline-of-the-west.md) · p. 462 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/oswald-spengler/the-decline-of-the-west/the-press-to-day.md)

Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [manipulation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation.md)

> Our mass media have little difficulty in selling particular interests as those of all sensible men. The political needs of society become individual needs and aspirations, their satisfaction promotes business and the commonweal, and the whole appeals to be the very embodiment of Reason.

[Herbert Marcuse](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse.md) · [One-Dimensional Man](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/herbert-marcuse/one-dimensional-man/our-mass-media.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md)

> The hardest things in the world are being unique and having your life be a story. In the old days, it was much easier, but our modern fame-driven culture, with its real-time 24-7 marinade of electronic information, demands a lot from modern citizens, and poses great obstacles to narrative.

[Douglas Coupland](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland.md) · [Generation A](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland/generation-a.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-coupland/generation-a/the-hardest-things.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [fame](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fame.md)

> We can't even call this a "mainstream" media. It's an extreme media-a media that cheerleads for war. Instead of learning from the media what is actually going on in the world, we get static-a veil of distortion, lies, omissions, and half-truths that obscure reality. As bodies pile up in Iraq and New Orleans, many people are mystified, wondering where it went so wrong. We need a media that creates static of another kind: what the dictionary defines as "criticism, opposition, or unwanted interference." Instead of a media that covers for power, we need a media that covers the movements that create static-and make history. We are not waiting for this alternative media; people are building it right now. Blogs, Indymedia centers, independent filmmakers, and other grassroots media have opened a new way to understand what is happening in the world today.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [Static](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/static.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/static/we-cant-even.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md)

> Vibrant debate and dissent exist in this country, but you are not reading or hearing about this in the mainstream press.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/vibrant-debate-and.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Going to where the silence is. That is the responsibility of a journalist: giving a voice to those who have been forgotten, forsaken, and beaten down by the powerful. It is the best reason I know to carry our pens, cameras, and microphones into our own communities and out to the wider world.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/going-to-where.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> In a society where freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution, our media largely acts as a megaphone for those in power. That's why people are so hungry for independent media-and are starting to make their own.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/in-a-society.md)

Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> That is one of the media's most serious responsibilities, to open up the discussion.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/that-is-one.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Media should not be a tool only of the powerful. The media can be a platform for the most important debates of our day: war and peace, freedom and tyranny. The debate must be wide-ranging not just a narrow discussion between Democrats and Republicans embedded in the establishment. We need to break open the box, tear down the boundaries that currently define acceptable discussion. We need a democratic media.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/media-should-not.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> We must build a trickle-up media that reflects the true character of this country and its people. A democratic media serving a democratic society.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/we-must-build.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [democracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy.md)

> It's a sad day when the government no longer has to cover up its dishonesty because the American media does it for them...This is the state of the corporate media today. It's a symptom of what we call the access of evil: journalists trading truth for access. The public unwittingly mistakes the illusion of news for reality.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [Static](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/static.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/static/its-a-sad.md)

Topics: [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> imagine if the U.S. media showed uncensored, hellish images of war-even for one week. What impact would that have? I think we would be able to abolish war.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/imagine-if-the.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> It's still much the same. On any given day, you can listen to the news on CNN or National Public Radio, then tune in to a Pacifica station. You would think you were hearing reports from different Planets. We inhabit the same planet, but we see it through different lenses.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/its-still-much.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> A democratic media gives us hope. It chronicles the movements and organizations that are making history today. When people hear their neighbors given a voice, see their struggles in what they watch and read, spirits are lifted. People feel like they can make a difference.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/a-democratic-media.md)

Topics: [hope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> We are a compassionate people. But people cannot take action if they don't have accurate information.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/we-are-a-compassionate.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [compassion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/compassion.md)

> This is not a media that is serving a democratic society, where a diversity of views is vital to shaping informed opinions. This is a well-oiled propaganda machine that is repackaging government spin and passing it off as journalism.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/this-is-not.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [democracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md)

> What the corporations fear most is that grassroots activists and independent journalists will utilize the same model that companies have used to grab power: globalization. Grassroots globalization.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/what-the-corporations.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [business](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/business.md)

> If you are opposed to war, you are not a fringe minority. You are not a silent majority. You are part of a silenced majority. Silenced by the mainstream media.

[Amy Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman.md) · [The Exception To The Rulers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amy-goodman/the-exception-to-the-rulers/if-you-are.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [pacifism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pacifism.md)

> Each day a few more lies eat into the seed with which we are born, little institutional lies from the print of newspapers, the shock waves of television, and the sentimental cheats of the movie screen.

[Norman Mailer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer.md) · [Advertisements for Myself](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/advertisements-for-myself.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-mailer/advertisements-for-myself/each-day-a-few.md)

Topics: [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md)

> The "medium is the message" is one of the world's silliest remarks. The message is the message, and it doesn't matter whether you send it by e-mail, a note in a bottle or on a picture postcard. The book, or the poem, or the play is what counts and it doesn't matter if it's written with a pen on a long sheet of ruled paper, as I am writing now, or on the most highly developed word processor. No machine can help with the rhythms of your prose, even if it can spell better than you can.

[John Mortimer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-mortimer.md) · [Where There's a Will](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-mortimer/where-theres-a-will.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-mortimer/where-theres-a-will/the-medium-is-the.md)

Topics: [writing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The same way every generation reinvents Christ, the agent's giving me the same makeover. The agent says nobody is going to worship anybody with my roll of flab around his middle. These days, people aren't going to fill stadiums to get preached at by somebody who isn't beautiful.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Survivor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/survivor.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/survivor/the-same-way.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The key to salvation is how much attention you get. How high a profile you get. Your audience share. Your exposure. Your name recognition. Your press following. The buzz.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Survivor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/survivor.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/survivor/the-key-to-salvation.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [fame](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fame.md)

> According to the agent, the biggest factor that makes you a saint is the amount of press coverage you get.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Survivor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/survivor.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/survivor/according-to-the.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [fame](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fame.md)

> I know the Press only too well. Almost all editors hide away in spider-dens, men without thought of Family or Public Interest or the humble delights of jaunts out-of-doors, plotting how they can put over their lies, and advance their own positions and fill their greedy pocketbooks by calumniating Statesmen who have given their all for the common good and who are vulnerable because they stand out in the fierce Light that beats around the Throne.

[Sinclair Lewis](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sinclair-lewis.md) · [It Can't Happen Here](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sinclair-lewis/it-cant-happen-here.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sinclair-lewis/it-cant-happen-here/i-know-the.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> We will never know if an advertisement or opinion poll has had a real influence on individual or collective wills, but we will never know either what would have happened if there had been no opinion poll or advertisement.

[Jean Baudrillard](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-baudrillard.md) · [The Perfect Crime](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-baudrillard/the-perfect-crime.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-baudrillard/the-perfect-crime/we-will-never.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [advertising](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/advertising.md)

> Nothing could be more stupid than for the communications commission to give to people who handle the means of broadcasting the inventing of what to broadcast, and then, disturbed at the poor quality, to worry about censorship.

[Paul Goodman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman.md) · [Growing Up Absurd](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-goodman/growing-up-absurd/nothing-could-be-more.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [censorship](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/censorship.md)

> “Terrifying data is now an industry in itself. Different firms compete to see how badly they can scare us.” – Jack

[Don DeLillo](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo.md) · [White Noise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/white-noise.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/white-noise/terrifying-data-is-now.md)

Topics: [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> “Once you’ve seen the signs about the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn…They are taking pictures of taking pictures.” – Murray

[Don DeLillo](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo.md) · [White Noise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/white-noise.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/don-delillo/white-noise/once-youve-seen.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [appearances](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/appearances.md)

> "In the future, readers of newspapers and magazines will probably view news pictures more as illustrations than as reportage, since they will be well aware that they can no longer distinguish between a genuine image and one that has been manipulated.[...]"

[Mark Z. Danielewski](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-z-danielewski.md) · [House of Leaves](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-z-danielewski/house-of-leaves.md) · p. 141 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-z-danielewski/house-of-leaves/in-the-future.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [manipulation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation.md)

> All meaning alters with acceleration, because all patterns of personal and political interdependence change with any acceleration of information. (p. 178-179)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/all-meaning-alters.md)

Topics: [change](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Radio affects most intimately, person-to-person, offering a world of unspoken communication between writer-speaker and the listener. That is the immediate aspect of radio. A private experience. The subliminal depths of radio are charged with the resonating echoes of tribal horns and antique drums. This is inherent in the very nature of this medium, with its power to turn the psyche and society into a single echo chamber. (p. 261)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/radio-affects-most.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered. The medium is the massage. Any understanding of social and cultural change is impossible without a knowledge of the way media work as environments. All media are extensions of some human faculty – psychic or physical. (p. 26)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [The Medium is the Massage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/the-medium-is-the-massage.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/the-medium-is-the-massage/all-media-work.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Once we have surrendered our senses and nervous systems to the private manipulation of those who would try to benefit from taking a lease on our eyes and ears and nerves, we don't really have any rights left. Leasing our eyes and ears and nerves to commercial interests is like handing over the common speech to a private corporation, or like giving the earth's atmosphere to a company as a monopoly. (p.73 of the 1966 Signet paperback edition)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/once-we-have.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [advertising](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/advertising.md)

> Radio comes to us ostensibly with person to person directness that is private and intimate, while in more urgent fact, it is really a subliminal echo chamber of magic power to touch remote and forgotten chords. (p. 302).

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/radio-comes-to-us-ostensibly.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The electric light is pure information. It is a medium without a message. (p. 8)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/the-electric-light.md)

Topics: [technology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perception...When these ratios change, men change.

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [The Medium is the Massage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/the-medium-is-the-massage.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/the-medium-is-the-massage/media-by-altering.md)

Topics: [change](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Radio provides a speed-up of information that also causes acceleration in other media. It certainly contracts the world to village size and creates insatiable village tastes for gossip, rumour, and personal malice. (p. 24)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/radio-provides-a-speed-up.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [gossip](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gossip.md)

> Although the medium is the message, the controls go beyond programming. The restraints are always directed to the “content,” which is always another medium. The content of the press is literary statement, as the content of the book is speech, and the content of the movie is the novel. So the effects of radio are quite independent of its programming. (p. 267)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/although-the-medium.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The hot radio medium used in cool or nonliterate cultures has a violent effect, quite unlike its effect, say in England or America, where radio is felt as entertainment. (p. 30)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/the-hot-radio.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> It is the poets and painters who react instantly to a new medium like radio or TV. (p. 53)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/it-is-the-poets.md)

Topics: [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> We are no more prepared to encounter radio and TV in our literate milieu than the native of Ghana is able to cope with the literacy that takes him out of his collective tribal world and beaches him in individual isolation. (xx)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/we-are-no-more.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [television](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television.md)

> It is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. (p. 9)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/it-is-the.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> All media exists to invest our lives with artificial perception and arbitrary values. (p. 199)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/all-media-exists.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The "message" of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs. (p. 8)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/the-message-of-any.md)

Topics: [technology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technology.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The press is a group confessional form that provides communal participation. The book is a private confessional form that provides a “point of view.” (p. 204)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/the-press-is-a-group.md)

Topics: [literature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> One of the many effects of television on radio has been to shift radio from an entertainment medium into a kind of nervous information system. (p. 298)

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/one-of-the.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [television](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television.md)

> The medium is the message.

[Marshall McLuhan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan.md) · [Understanding Media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marshall-mcluhan/understanding-media/the-medium-is-the.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> We value virtue but do not discuss it. The honest bookkeeper, the faithful wife, the earnest scholar get little of our attention compared to the embezzler, the tramp, the cheat.

[John Steinbeck](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck.md) · [Travels with Charley in Search of America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/travels-with-charley-in-search-of-america/we-value-virtue.md)

Topics: [kindness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> At first I thought the exhaustive, nonstop coverage of the O. J. Simpson trial was just an unfortunate excess — an unwelcome departure from the normal good sense and judgment of our television news media. Now we know that it was merely an early example of a new pattern of serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time: the Michael Jackson trial and the Robert Blake trial, the Laci Peterson tragedy and the Chandra Levy tragedy, Britney and KFed, Lindsay and Paris and Nicole.
>
> While American television watchers were collectively devoting 100 million hours of their lives each week to these and other similar stories, our nation was in the process of more quietly making what future historians will certainly describe as a series of catastrophically mistaken decisions on issues of war and peace, the global climate and human survival, freedom and barbarity, justice and fairness. For example, hardly anyone now disagrees that the choice to invade Iraq was a grievous mistake. Yet, incredibly, all of the evidence and arguments necessary to have made the right decision were available at the time and in hindsight are glaringly obvious.

[Al Gore](https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore.md) · [The Assault on Reason](https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore/the-assault-on-reason.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore/the-assault-on-reason/at-first-i-thought.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [television](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television.md)

> Any new dominant communications medium leads to a new information ecology in society that inevitably changes the way ideas, feelings, wealth, power and influence are distributed and the way collective decisions are made.

[Al Gore](https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore.md) · [The Assault on Reason](https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore/the-assault-on-reason.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/al-gore/the-assault-on-reason/any-new-dominant.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> STRUCTURE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN CONTENT IN THE TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION. It is the same as saying "the medium is the message."

[Abbie Hoffman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/abbie-hoffman.md) · [Revolution for the Hell of It](https://www.leafyquotes.com/abbie-hoffman/revolution-for-the-hell-of-it.md) · p. 109 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/abbie-hoffman/revolution-for-the-hell-of-it/structure-is-more.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> "The papers exaggerate. They exaggerate everything, just to sell papers. The government exaggerates, to keep our minds off what morons they are."

[John Hoyer Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike.md) · [Rabbit at Rest](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/rabbit-at-rest/the-papers-exaggerate.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [the state](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-state.md)

> Our brains are no longer conditioned for reverence and awe. We cannot imagine a Second Coming that would not be cut down to size by the televised evening news, or a Last Judgment not subject to pages of holier-than-Thou second-guessing in The New York Review of Books.

[John Hoyer Updike](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike.md) · [Self-Consciousness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/self-consciousness.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-hoyer-updike/self-consciousness/our-brains-are.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The only standard journalists respect is: Will this story promote the left-wing agenda?

[Ann Coulter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter.md) · [How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter/how-to-talk-to-a-liberal-if-you-must.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter/how-to-talk-to-a-liberal-if-you-must/the-only-standard.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Since liberals never print retractions, they can say anything. What they said in the past is always deemed inadmissible and unfair to quote.

[Ann Coulter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter.md) · [How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter/how-to-talk-to-a-liberal-if-you-must.md) · p. 66 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter/how-to-talk-to-a-liberal-if-you-must/since-liberals-never.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The Times was rushing to assure its readers that "prominent Islamic scholars and theologians in the West say unequivocally that nothing in Islam countenances the Sept. 11 actions." (That's if you set aside Muhammad's many specific instructions to kill nonbelievers whenever possible).

[Ann Coulter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter.md) · [How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter/how-to-talk-to-a-liberal-if-you-must.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter/how-to-talk-to-a-liberal-if-you-must/the-times-was.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [terrorism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/terrorism.md)

> The commentariat denounced Trump’s immigration policies, then quickly returned to saying he had no policies at all. It was as if JFK had said we were going to the moon and the entire media shouted back, “Okay, but what’s your policy on going to the moon.”

[Ann Coulter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter.md) · [In Trump We Trust](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter/in-trump-we-trust.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-coulter/in-trump-we-trust/the-commentariat-denounced.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Life, as he conceived of it, was a long decline from a glorious past, and if a reader approaches a newspaper in that spirit, he can find much to confirm him in his belief, particularly if he has never examined any short period of the past in day-to-day detail.

[Robertson Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies.md) · [The Salterton Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-salterton-trilogy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-salterton-trilogy/life-as-he-conceived.md)

Topics: [the past](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The letter was marked "Urgent -- Print This At Once". Wearily, Ridley laid it aside. This was, perhaps, the voice of the people, and the voice of the people, no editor is ever permitted to forget, is the voice of God. It was a pity, he reflected, that God's utterances needed such a lot of editorial revision.

[Robertson Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies.md) · [The Salterton Trilogy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-salterton-trilogy.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-salterton-trilogy/the-letter-was.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> He tell us that in a democracy, keeping abreast of current events was a citizen’s most important duty and that you could never start too early to be informed about the news of the day.

[Philip Roth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth.md) · [The Plot Against America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/the-plot-against-america.md) · p. 181 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-roth/the-plot-against-america/he-tell-us-that.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [democracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy.md)

> In the age of pseudo‑events it is less the artificial sim­plification than the artificial complication of experience that confuses us. Whenever in the public mind a pseudo‑event competes for attention with a spontaneous event in the same field, the pseudo‑event will tend to dominate. What happens on television will overshadow what happens off television.

[Daniel J. Boorstin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin.md) · [The Image](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image.md) · p. 39 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image/in-the-age.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [television](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television.md)

> Pseudo‑events do, of course, increase our illusion of grasp on the world, what some have called the American illusion of omnipotence. Perhaps, we come to think, the world’s problems can really be settled by “statements,” by “Summit” meetings, by a competition of “prestige,” by overshadowing images, and by political quiz shows.

[Daniel J. Boorstin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin.md) · [The Image](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image.md) · p. 44 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image/pseudo-events-do-of-course.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions.md)

> What happened this far remote would have little political impact on Earth. What the visual media could not carry into living rooms, the general public could not long remain exercised about. Statistically, a majority of the electorate could not or did not read complicated issues; no pictures, no news; no news, no event.

[C. J. Cherryh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-j-cherryh.md) · [Downbelow Station](https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-j-cherryh/downbelow-station.md) · p. 118 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-j-cherryh/downbelow-station/what-happened-this.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The news leak is a pseudo‑event par excellence. In its origin and growth, the leak illustrates another axiom of the world of pseudo‑events: pseudo‑events produce more pseudo‑events.

[Daniel J. Boorstin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin.md) · [The Image](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image.md) · p. 31 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image/the-news-leak.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> IN THE last half century a larger and larger proportion of our experience, of what we read and see and hear, has come to consist of pseudo‑events. We expect more of them and we are given more of them. They flood our consciousness. Their multiplication has gone on in the United States at a faster rate than elsewhere. Even the rate of increase is increasing every day. This is true of the world of education, of consumption, and of personal relations.

[Daniel J. Boorstin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin.md) · [The Image](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image.md) · p. 12 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image/in-the-last.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> These pseudo‑events which flood our consciousness must be distinguished from propaganda. The two do have some characteristics in common. But our peculiar problems come from the fact that pseudo‑events are in some respects the op­posite of the propaganda which rules totalitarian countries. Propaganda — as prescribed, say, by Hitler in Mein Kampf — is information intentionally biased. Its effect depends pri­marily on its emotional appeal. While a pseudo‑event is an ambiguous truth, propaganda is an appealing falsehood. Pseudo‑events thrive on our honest desire to be informed, to have “all the facts,” and even to have more facts than there really are.

[Daniel J. Boorstin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin.md) · [The Image](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image.md) · p. 34 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image/these-pseudo-events-which.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md)

> Pseudo‑events spawn other pseudo‑events in geometric progression. This is partly because every kind of pseudo­-event (being planned) tends to become ritualized, with a protocol and a rigidity all its own. As each type of pseudo-­event acquires this rigidity, pressures arise to produce other, derivative, forms of pseudo‑event which are more fluid, more tantalizing, and more interestingly ambiguous.

[Daniel J. Boorstin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin.md) · [The Image](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image.md) · p. 33 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-j-boorstin/the-image/pseudo-events-spawn-other.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The polls undoubtedly help to decide what people think, but their most important long-term influence may be on how people think. The interrogative process is very distinctly weighted against the asking of an intelligent question or the recording of a thoughtful answer.

[Christopher Hitchens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens.md) · [For the Sake of Argument](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument/the-polls-undoubtedly.md)

Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The disquieting thing about newscaster-babble or editorial-speak is its ready availability as a serf idiom, a vernacular of deference. "Mr. Secretary, are we any nearer to bringing about a dialogue in this process?"

[Christopher Hitchens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens.md) · [For the Sake of Argument](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument/the-disquieting-thing.md)

Topics: [language](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Daily news and sugar confuse our system in the same manner.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb.md) · [Antifragile](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile.md) · p. 127 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile/daily-news-and.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [health](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/health.md)

> Modernity widened the distance between the sensational and the relevant.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb.md) · [Antifragile](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile.md) · p. 109 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile/modernity-widened-the.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week’s newspapers.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb.md) · [The Bed of Procrustes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes.md) · p. 21 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes/to-be-completely.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The best test of whether someone is extremely stupid (or extremely wise) is whether financial and political news makes sense to him.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb.md) · [The Bed of Procrustes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes.md) · p. 87 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes/the-best-test.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [stupidity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> I do not dispute that arguments should be simplified to their maximum... but people often confuse complex ideas that cannot be simplified into a media-friendly statement as symptomatic of a confused mind. ...MBAs tend to blow up in financial markets, as they are trained to simplify... beyond... requirement. (...I am myself the unhappy holder of the degree.)

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb.md) · [Fooled by Randomness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/i-do-not.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [simplicity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/simplicity.md)

> [N]ews... is full of noise and... history is largely stripped of it.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb.md) · [Fooled by Randomness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/n-ews-is-full.md)

Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> There are hordes of thoughtful journalists... [I]t is just that prominent media journalism is a thoughtless process of providing the noise that captures people's attention and there exists no mechanism for separating the two.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb.md) · [Fooled by Randomness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/there-are-hordes.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [journalism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/journalism.md)

> We used to think that secrecy was perhaps the greatest enemy of democracy, and as long as there was no suppression or censorship, people could be trusted to make the informed decisions that would preserve our free society, but we have learned in recent years that the techniques of misinformation and misdirection have become so refined that, even in an open society, a cleverly directed flood of misinformation can overwhelm the truth, even though the truth is out there, uncensored, quietly available to anyone who can find it.

[Daniel Dennett](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett.md) · [Breaking the Spell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett/breaking-the-spell.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett/breaking-the-spell/we-used-to-think.md)

Topics: [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [democracy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy.md)

> [T]he mental probabilistic map in one's mind is so geared toward the sensational that one would realize informational gains by dispensing with the news.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb.md) · [Fooled by Randomness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/t-he-mental-probabilistic.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> Old George Orwell got it backward. Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother's busy holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's making sure you're fully absorbed. He's making sure your imagination withers. Until it's as useful as your appendix. He's making sure your attention is always filled. And this being fed, it's worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what's in your mind. With everyone's imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Lullaby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/old-george-orwell.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [imagination](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination.md), [manipulation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation.md)

> Down through the ceiling comes a fire siren and people screaming that we're supposed to ignore. The gunshots and tires squeeling, sounds wee have to pretend are okay. They don't mean anything. It's just television. An explosion vibrates down from the upstairs. A woman begs someone not to rape her. It's not real. It's just a movie. We're the culture that cried wolf.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Lullaby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/down-through-the.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [television](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/television.md)

> You don't become a journalist because you're good at keeping secrets. Being a Journalist is about telling. It's about bearing the bad news. Spreading the contagion. The biggest story in history. This could be the end of mass media. The Culling song would be a plague unique to the Information Age. Imagine a world where people shun the television, the radio, movies, the Internet, magazines, and newspapers. People have to wear earplugs the way they wear condoms and rubber gloves. In the past, nobody worried too much about sex with strangers. Or before that, bites from fleas. Or untreated drinking water. Mosquitoes. Asbestos.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Lullaby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/you-dont-become.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [journalism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/journalism.md)

> Here's Big Brother, singing and dancing, force-feeding you, so your mind never goes hungry enough to think.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Lullaby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/heres-big-brother.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [manipulation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/manipulation.md)

> Anymore, no one's mind is their own. You can't concentrate. You can't think. There's always some noise worming in. Singers shouting. Dead people laughing. Actors crying. All these little doses of emotion. Someone's always spraying the air with their mood.

[Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Lullaby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/lullaby/anymore-no-ones.md)

Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> In regard to propaganda the early advocates of universal literacy and a free press envisaged only two possibilities: the propaganda might be true, or it might be false. They did not foresee what in fact has happened, above all in our Western capitalist democracies—the development of a vast mass communications industry, concerned in the main neither with the true nor the false, but with the unreal, the more or less totally irrelevant. In a word, they failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distraction.

[Aldous Huxley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley.md) · [Brave New World Revisited](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited.md) · p. 35 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world-revisited/in-regard-to-propaganda.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md)

> Never has the media been so influential in determining the course of war as during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, which, as far as the Western media are concerned, has essentially become a battle over images and ideas. Israel has already poured hundreds of millions of dollars into what in Hebrew is called hasbara, or information for the outside world (hence, propaganda). This has included an entire range of efforts: lunches and free trips for influential journalists; seminars for Jewish university students who, over a week in a secluded country estate, can be primed to “defend” Israel on the campus; bombarding congressmen and women with invitations and visits; pamphlets and, most important, money for election campaigns; directing (or, as the case requires, harassing) photographers and writers of the current intifada into producing certain images and not others; lecture and concert tours by prominent Israelis; training commentators to make frequent references to the Holocaust and Israel’s predicament today; many advertisements in the newspapers attacking Arabs and praising Israel; and on and on. Because so many powerful people in the media and publishing business are strong supporters of Israel, the task is made vastly easier.

[Edward W. Said](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said.md) · [From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/from-oslo-to-iraq-and-the-road-map.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/from-oslo-to-iraq-and-the-road-map/never-has-the.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md)

> Israel is now waging a war against civilians, pure and simple, although you will never hear it put that way in the United States. This is a racist war and, in its strategy and tactics, a colonial one as well. People are being killed and made to suffer disproportionately because they are not Jews. What an irony! Yet CNN never refers to “occupied” territories (always rather to “violence in Israel,” as if the main battlefields were the concert halls and cafés of Tel Aviv and not in fact the ghettos and besieged refugee camps of Palestine that have already been surrounded by no less than 150 illegal Israeli settlements). For the past ten years, the great fraud of Oslo was foisted on the world by the United States, with hardly an awareness that only 18 percent of the West Bank was given up, and 60 percent of Gaza. No one knows geography, and it’s better not to know, since the reality on the ground is so astonishing, considering the verbal hoopla and self-congratulation.
>
> And that pseudo-pundit—the insufferably conceited Thomas Friedman—still has the gall to say that “Arab TV” shows one-sided pictures, as if “Arab TV” should be showing things from Israel’s point of view the way CNN does, with “Mideast violence” the catchall word for the ethnic cleansing that Israel is wreaking on the Palestinians in their ghettos and camps. Has Friedman (or CNN, for that matter) ever tried to point out the difference between an attacking army fighting a colonial war on the territory of the people it has occupied for thirty-five years, and the people defending against that butchery? Of course not, for indeed why should Friedman ever bother to say honestly that there is no Palestinian occupation, there are no Palestinian F-16s, no Apache helicopters, no gunboats, no Merkava tanks, in short, no Palestinian occupation of Israel. So much for Friedman’s credentials as an honest commentator and reporter, who has utterly failed in unadorned terms both to explain the U.S. view and to understand the Arab and Palestinian cause. Can he not see that he and his writings are part of the problem, that in their maundering selfjustifications and their dishonesty, showing no sign of the self-criticism he keeps hectoringly expecting of others, he actually aggravates the ignorance and the misperceptions rather than reducing them? Poor journalist and educator, he.

[Edward W. Said](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said.md) · [From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/from-oslo-to-iraq-and-the-road-map.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/from-oslo-to-iraq-and-the-road-map/israel-is-now.md)

Topics: [war](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [racism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/racism.md)

> Remember that CNN, Time Warner, Disney, NBC, Fox News, and the rest are part of the same ideological system, serve the same clientele, and are owned by the same relatively tiny group of people whose interest is to keep things as they are. Memory is an inhibition, a possible threat to their hegemony, just as it is very dangerous for a critic to keep making connections between supposedly un- or nonpolitical institutions like the Supreme Court and the Constitution, and on the other hand, base commercial interests.

[Edward W. Said](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said.md) · [From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/from-oslo-to-iraq-and-the-road-map.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/edward-w-said/from-oslo-to-iraq-and-the-road-map/remember-that-cnn.md)

Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [memory](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The last best hope on earth, two trillion dollars in debt, is spinning out of control, and all we can do is stare at a flickering cathode-ray tube as Ollie "answers" questions on TV while the press, resolutely irrelevant as ever, asks politicians if they have committed adultery. From V-J Day 1945 to this has been, my fellow countrymen, a perfect nightmare.

[Gore Vidal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal.md) · [At Home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/at-home.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/at-home/the-last-best.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> The hell with the newspapers. Nobody reads the letters to the editor column except the nuts. It's enough to get you down.

[Philip K. Dick](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick.md) · [Confessions of a Crap Artist](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/confessions-of-a-crap-artist.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/confessions-of-a-crap-artist/the-hell-with.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> We witness a passing phase of eternity. Important things happen but some people never notice. Accidents intervene. You are not present at episodes. You depend on reports. And people shutter their minds. What good are reports? History in a news account? Preselected at an editorial conference, digested and excreted by prejudice? Accounts you need seldom come from those who make history. Diaries, memoirs and autobiographies are subjective forms of special pleading. Archives are crammed with such suspect stuff.

[Frank Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert.md) · [Chapterhouse: Dune](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/chapterhouse-dune.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/chapterhouse-dune/we-witness-a-passing.md)

Topics: [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md), [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> The picture of the world that's presented to the public has only the remotest relation to reality. The truth of the matter is buried under edifice after edifice of lies upon lies.

[Noam Chomsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky.md) · [Media Control](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control/the-picture-of-the.md)

Topics: [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [reality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reality.md)

> That was a major achievement, and it led to a further achievement. Right at that time and after the war the same techniques were used to whip up a hysterical Red Scare, as it was called, which succeeded pretty much in destroying unions and eliminating such dangerous problems as freedom of the press and freedom of political thought. There was very strong support from the media, from the business establishment, which in fact organized, pushed much of this work, and it was, in general, a great success.

[Noam Chomsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky.md) · [Media Control](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/noam-chomsky/media-control/that-was-a-major.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [propaganda](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/propaganda.md)

> Remind me to write a popular article on the compulsive reading of news. The theme will be that most neuroses and some psychoses can be traced to the unnecessary and unhealthy habit of daily wallowing in the troubles and sins of five billion strangers. The title is 'Gossip Unlimited' — no, make that 'Gossip Gone Wild.'

[Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md) · [Stranger in a Strange Land](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/stranger-in-a-strange-land.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/stranger-in-a-strange-land/remind-me-to-write.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [gossip](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gossip.md)

> The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.

[Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville.md) · [Democracy in America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alexis-de-tocqueville/democracy-in-america/the-power-of-the.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md)

> And that, apart from a flurry of sensational newspaper reports which exposed him as a fraud, then trumpeted him as the real thing so that they could have another round of exposing him as a fraud again and then trumpeting him as the real thing again, until they got bored and found a nice juicy snooker player to harass instead, was that.

[Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/dirk-gentlys-holistic-detective-agency.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/dirk-gentlys-holistic-detective-agency/and-that-apart.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [fame](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fame.md)

> The content that spreads most easily is often the content that cuts the most corners. [...] Tone becomes part of the data. Hesitation becomes part of the story.

[Katherine Perry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/katherine-perry.md) · [Ticker Shock: A Playbook for Investor Relations, Communications, and Leadership in the Age of Retail Investors](https://www.leafyquotes.com/katherine-perry/ticker-shock-a-playbook-for-investor-relations-communications-and-leadership-in-the-age-of-retail-investors.md) · Chapter two: The attention reflex · The incentive system of the feed · p. 29 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/katherine-perry/ticker-shock-a-playbook-for-investor-relations-communications-and-leadership-in-the-age-of-retail-investors/the-content-that.md)

Topics: [media](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media.md), [the internet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-internet.md)