“Exaggeration in every sense is as essential to newspaper writing as it is to the writing of plays: for the point is to make as much as possible of every occurrence. So that all newspaper writers are, for the sake of their trade, alarmists: this is their way of making themselves interesting. What they really do, however, is resemble little dogs who, as soon as anything whatever moves, start up a loud barking. It is necessary, therefore, not to pay too much attention to their alarms, and to realize in general that the newspaper is a magnifying glass, and this only at best: for very often it is no more than a shadow-play on the wall.” – Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms (trans. Hollingdale)
Full of sound and fury
May 21st, 2013 · 2 Comments
Tags: Economics · Lit & Crit · Politics & Law
2 responses so far ↓
1 Averil // May 21, 2013 at 10:26 am
If they’d only stop yapping about Benghazi I might actually tune back in to see if something else is going on in the world. (Hmm, maybe they have stopped by now. I should probably crack open the door to see whether the coast is clear.)
2 Tetman Callis // May 21, 2013 at 1:07 pm
i don’t even bother. if the only thing going on was watching paint dry, they’d still try to make a political drama out of it.
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