The importance of information is directly proportional to its improbability.

Whole columns are devoted to parliamentary debates and to political intrigues; while the vast everyday life of a nation appears only in the columns given to economic subjects, or in the pages devoted to reports of police and law cases. And when you read the newspapers, your hardly think of the incalculable number of beings — all humanity, so to say — who grow up and die, who know sorrow, who work and consume, think and create outside the few encumbering personages who have been so magnified that humanity is hidden by their shadows, enlarged by our ignorance.

The time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.

"The rule of thumb for all news operations is that stories are assigned their importance on the basis of what affects or interests the greatest number of one's readers or viewers. Depending on the nature of the newspaper or broadcast, the balance between what "affects" and what "interests" is quite different. The first criteria of a responsible newspaper such as The New York Times is going to be that which their readers need to know about their world that day — those developments that in one way or another might affect their health, their pocketbooks, the future of themselves and their children. The first criterion of the tabloid is that which "interests" its readers — gossip, sex, scandal."

People tend to assess the relative importance of issues by the ease with which they are retrieved from memory — and this is largely determined by the extent of coverage in the media. Frequently mentioned topics populate the mind even as others slip away from awareness.

One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it.

The effectiveness of any operation is in inverse proportion to the number of people used.

The value of a book about dealing with children is inversely proportional to the number of times it contains the word behavior.

Journalists should give 80 percent of space to reporting good things and achievements and 20 percent to criticizing the seamy side of things and expose our shortcomings [...] This conforms with the reality of society.

newspapers, without a purpose, devoted space nowadays to illiterate imbecilities that nobody would have glanced at twice, a generation ago

Unfortunately, the media devotes so much space to covering all of the bad, hateful things that are going on and not enough to reporting about all the goodness and kindness that’s out there.

Too often, an event’s importance is not recognized until it is too late for proper recording.

The newspapers of both countries give publicity only to prejudiced stories unfavorable to the enemy. One would imagine that they devote themselves to collecting only the worst cases, in order to preserve the atmosphere of hatred; and those to which they give predominance are often doubtful and always exceptional.

"Your remarks demonstrate how proximity narrows perspective," said Gaskarth. "Events in and of themselves are less pertinent than the effects and interpretations to which they give rise."