Most words at a press briefing are irrelevant noise to extract signal from

Evidence

Let me teach you something,” he said. “Seventy-five percent of what they say is useless. You have to think of what’s important. You have to think of the audience and what’s being said to them. You have to learn how to take key words and learn how to refer back to them. Otherwise all you’re doing is making your hands tired.” — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 752

Categorization

• APHORISMS: Practical craft wisdom: filtering the audience-relevant few sentences from the bulk is the real skill, not exhaustive note-taking.
• SEED: An essay contrasting verbatim transcription culture with editorial distillation — when exhaustive capture becomes a way to avoid judgment.