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Tabloids Quotes

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Tabloids Quotes

“When he was sixteen (1923), Peter got a job as copy boy on a New York tabloid and entered a saltier, more hard-bitten world. It was a roaring, lush, lousy tabloid. Everybody was drunk all the time. The managing editor hired girl reporters on condition they sleep with him. New staffs moved in and were mowed down like the Light Brigade. Chorus girls, debutantes, and widows suspected of murdering their husbands were perched on desks with their thighs showing to be photographed. An endless parade of cranks, freaks, ministers, actresses, and politicians moved through the big babbling room, day and night. The city editor went crazy one afternoon. So did his successor. And among the typewriters and the paste pots and the thighs, Peter walked with simple delight. A young reporter took a liking to him, found he was homeless, and insisted he share an elegant bachelor apartment uptown. There were constant parties, starting at dawn and ending as the hush of twilight settled over the city. People went to work and went to parties until they got the two pursuits confused and never noticed the difference. Whisky was oxygen, women were furniture, thinking was masochism.”

Tabloids1920sNewspaperReporter
Author:Jack Iams
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“Heartless gossips pose as professional press, they get a few quotes and run with the story like Seabiscuit to the finish line. They’re nothing more than conmen, salesmen, pitchmen, pompous men professing to be of public service—and they have the freedom to do so. There’s no price to pay.”

TruthJournalism1930sTabloidsJournalistsGossip Columns
Book:Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale
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“Scripture-pure veracity and scandal-rag content. That conjunction gives it its sizzle. You carry the seed of belief within you already. You recall the time this narrative captures and sense conspiracy. I am here to tell you that it is all true and not at all what you think. You will read with some reluctance and capitulate in the end. The following pages will force you to succumb. I am going to tell you everything.”

Tabloids
Book:Blood's a Rover
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“But that’s what happens. Once the human tragedy has been completed, it gets turned over to the journalists to banalize into entertainment. Perhaps it’s because the whole irrational frenzy burst right through our door and no newspaper’s half-baked insinuating detail passed me by that I think of the McCarthy era as inaugurating the postwar triumph of gossip as the unifying credo of the world’s oldest democratic republic. In Gossip We Trust. Gossip as gospel, the national faith. McCarthyism as the beginning not just of serious politics but of serious everything as entertainment to amuse the mass audience. McCarthyism as the first postwar flowering of the American unthinking that is now everywhere.”

EntertainmentGossipDistractionTabloidsMass Audiences
Book:I Married a Communist
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“We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who Comes on at five She can tell you 'bout the plane crash with a gleam In her eye It's interesting when people die - Give us dirty laundry Can we film the operation? Is the head dead yet? You know, the boys in the newsroom got a Running bet Get the widow on the set! We need dirty laundry You don't really need to find out what's going on You don't really want to know just how far it's gone Just leave well enough alone Eat your dirty laundry”

TabloidsTvPressCallousnessSensationalismDirty LaundryInfotainment
Author:Don Henley
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“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.”

NewsJournalismTabloidsThe New York Times
Book:A Reporter's Life
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“For over six months the order had been publishing The Warning, an eight-page newspaper carrying lurid red headlines and poorly-drawn quarter-page cartoons, and edited by Matthew. The noble Southern working people purchased it eagerly, devouring and believing every word in it. Matthew, in 14-point, one-syllable word editorials painted terrifying pictures of the menace confronting white supremacy and the utter necessity of crushing it. Very cleverly he linked up the Pope, the Yellow Peril, the Alien Invasion and Foreign Entanglements with Black-No-More as devices of the Devil. He wrote with such blunt sincerity that sometimes he almost persuaded himself that it was all true.”

RacismPropagandaAfrican AmericansBlacksWhite SupremacyTabloidsConspiracy TheoriesConspiracies
Book:Black No More
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“It's kind of a funny world we live in today with tabloids and all. I feel there's so much negativity out there and people sense that people only want to read things that either are controversial or negative, therefore you end up dealing with people lying about your life and having to answer to things that become ridiculous with an onslaught of lies and you have to answer to them.”

PeopleWorldWantFeelsKindEndsTodayLyingAnswersNegativeRidiculousNegativityControversialTabloidsDealing With PeoplePeople Lie
Author:Kate Hudson
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“One of the most extraordinary things about industrial society of the present day is its idiot lack of memory. Tabloids and movies take the place of mental processes and revolts, crimes, despairs pass off in a dribble of vague words and rubber stamp phrases without leaving a scratch on the mind of the driven instalment-paying, subway-packing mass.”

MindProcessMemoriesCrimeDespairMassExtraordinaryLeavingDrivenIdiotPhrasesVagueStampsScratchesRevoltSubwayPresent DayRubberTabloidsExtraordinary ThingsPackingDribble
Book:John Dos Passos: the major nonfictional prose
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“When we get to the point where a gay pro athlete is no longer forced to live in fear that he'll be shunned by teammates or outed by tabloids, when we get to the point where he plays while his significant other waits in the family room, when we get to the point where he's not compelled to hide his true self and is able to live an authentic life, then coming out won't be such a big deal. But we're not there yet.”

SelfPlayBigsAbleWaitingRoomsDealsGayAthleteSignificantComing OutTrue SelfCompelledBig DealTeammateTabloidsSignificant OtherAuthentic LifePro Athlete
Author:Jason Collins
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“In her final months Princess Diana was being shat upon by the tabloids -- basically for sleeping with an Arab. When she died, these same papers were astonished by the millennial wave of emotionalism that swept the country ... One paper had a print-ready story about what a slag the Princess was, and they had to pull it at the last moment. It was replaced with an image of Diana as an angel, ascending to heaven.”

CountryMomentsStoriesLastsHeavenSleepReadyMonthsPaperAngelDiedFinalsWavePrintPrincessReplacedPapersTabloidsDianaMillennialsAscendingSlag
Author:Martin Amis
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“I think the things that are more painful to me are not the intrusion of paparazzi, it's the lack of civility that I find more intimidating and far more painful an experience. It's the lack of critical thinking. It's the endless snarky, mean way we talk about each other, we approach each other. The anonymity of being cruel, the delight in tearing people down. The tabloid era that we find ourselves in is a cultural boneyard, and that is painful to me.”

PeopleThinkingWayMeanApproachPainfulDelightCriticalEndlessErasCivilityCritical ThinkingIntimidatingTabloidsAnonymityPaparazziIntrusion
Author:Sarah Jessica Parker
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“I think people today are very cynical. They need to bring other people down. Reality television and tabloid magazines—never before did we need to see movie stars taking out their garbage. But all of a sudden, it's front-page news—trying to figure out who's dating whom, all that stuff. Who cares?”

PeopleThinkingNeedsTryingRealityCareTodayStarsStuffFrontsFiguresTelevisionNewsPagesDatingMagazinesCynicalWho CaresMovie StarGarbageTabloidsReality Television
Author:Scarlett Johansson
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“I wouldn't say our relationship is always smooth sailing. In a fun sort of way, this publicizing of some feud has brought us closer together. I think it had to do with shooting an episode last season at a school. The students swarmed around him, and I'm walking along and feeling like yesterday's lunch. I was saying that was hard to deal with sometimes and he said, "Stephanie, you can go for it! All you have to do is play sexy." It was a nice chat, but the tabloids took it and made it out that I was jealous. I'm not jealous.”

ThinkingWayMadeSaidSometimesHardPlayFeelingsSchoolTogetherLastsFunDealsNiceStudentsWalkingSeasonsSexyYesterdayMade ItShootingJealousLunchOur RelationshipEpisodesSmoothSailingTabloidsFeudsNot JealousSmooth Sailing
Author:Stephanie Zimbalist
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