Knoll's Law of Media Accuracy
"Everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true — except for that rare story of which you have firsthand knowledge." A wry reminder that media accuracy looks different from the inside.
EverydayConcepts.io
Origin
Attributed to Erwin Knoll (1931–1994), Austrian-born American journalist and longtime editor of The Progressive magazine. The quip was popularized by U.S. Attorney General William French Smith in a 1982 speech. It echoes the related Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect coined by Michael Crichton: you spot the errors in an article about your own field, then turn the page and trust the next one completely.
Updated February 22, 2026