The newspaper is the second-hand in the clock of history; and it is not only made of baser metal than those which point to the minute and the hour, but it seldom goes right. – Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860), “On Some Forms of Literature,” The Art of

The media transforms the great silence of things into its opposite. Formerly constituting a secret, the real now talks constantly. News reports, information, statistics, and surveys are everywhere. – Michel De Certeau

The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands. – Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism, 1891

Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. – Thomas Jefferson, letter to Nathaniel Macon