An expression used to refer to an
imaginary construct which spends all of its time
cranking out generalized
views,
impressions, or
opinions on various topics. These items are often
titillating,
scandalous, and sometimes utterly
outrageous depending on the source.
One of the best
real-world manifestations of a
rumor-mill would be The
Weekly World News. Of course, many such mills exist, and are generally described using the term
tabloid. The best
farcical tabloid is undoubtedly
The Onion.
Of course, it can almost always be assumed that there is little
quality control spent on the end product (
bad rumors) of these 'factories'. Hence the
negative connotation associated with the word.