Shoeshine boy

People who are not actively gathering information.

Often the information that comes to this person is bad information

Is it an exaggeration to go so far as to say that

Do not spread information unless the spread of that information would be beneficial to person X who has the information.

Derived from this

Information that is spread is not beneficial to the receiver, but information that is beneficial to the sender to spread

When you add the "buy and sell" or "zero-sum" factor here, you derive "information spread is bad information".

The original story of "The Shoeshine Boy."

You can find it by searching.

An episode, supposedly made up, by Joseph P. Kennedy (father of U.S. President John F. Kennedy).

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