The merit of Locke’s ‘Essay Concerning Human Understanding’ is its adequacy, and not its consistency. . . He should have widened the title of his book into ‘An Essay Concerning Experience.

Several themes describe misconceptions about mental illness and corresponding stigmatizing attitudes. Media analyses of film and print have identified three: people with mental illness are homicidal maniacs who need to be feared; they have childlike...

I give boring people something to discuss over corn.

But the answer isn’t just to intimidate people into consuming more ‘serious’ news; it is to push so-called serious outlets into learning to present important information in ways that can properly engage audiences. It is...

You maintain hope for humanity as an infinite skeptic of gossip and slander. In all mankind’s desires for entertainment and exaggeration and sensationalism, when it comes to gossip, the individual always sounds worse than he...

In a society where dirt sells, for every good story told as it is, you will hear the whole of that day’s 10 bad stories sensationalized; although in reality, it could be that 100 good...

I like a good murder that can’t be found out. That is, of course it is very shocking, but I like to hear about it.

Of real sensational journalism, as it exists in France, in Ireland, and in America, we have no trace in this country. When a journalist in Ireland wishes to create a thrill, he creates a thrill...

Don’t forget this, too: Rumors aren’t interested in the unsensational story; rumors don’t care what’s true.