tabloids

I don__ mind my friends calling me __hornes,_ but the fact of people calling me __rickly Thornes_ draws the line.

I don__ mind my friends calling me 'Thornes,' but the fact of people calling me 'Prickly Thornes' draws the line.

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.

Though you can get smart from reading everything that a smart person writes, you cannot get famous from reading about everything that a famous person does or is said to have done.

A paparazzi is merely an extremely nosy nobody with a camera__nd bills to pay.

We call talking about other people__ personal lives __ossip_ only if we aren__ or weren__ part of the conversation.

Though people sort of need your permission to talk to you, they do not really need one to talk about you.

A rumor is usually a lie that the media can legally profit from.