newzakn.
/ˈnjuːzak/, U.S. /ˈn(j)uˌzæk/ Usually depreciative.
News, or (in later use) esp. news coverage, likened to Muzak as being pervasive but unchallenging, inessential, and without depth.
ΚΠ
1968 Listener 9 May 595/1 Malcolm [Muggeridge]'s theory is that..Washington is permeated with Newzak; meaningless news—comment and reaction and rumours and counter-whispers and confirmations and denials—seeps out of the floorboards and the panelling in a constant unbidden flow.
1978 Contemp. Sociol. 7 770 ‘The Today Show’ and its imitators give us ‘Newszak’ that blend unobtrusively into the background.
1991 Eng. Today Apr. 13/3 Permanent news rapidly becomes newzak, a ceaseless, nervous, half-heard wittering noise like the old men in public libraries.
2001 Observer 5 Aug. 29/1 Those who work in the ‘newzak’ business.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1968