Idiom: Nothing Travels As Fast As Bad News

“Nothing Travels As Fast As Bad News” is a very direct meaning – that bad news spreads very quickly from person to person, much more quickly than any other news, relating to gossip and rumours.

Example:
A: I have some shocking news! John has been fired.
B: Yes, I already know – nothing travels as fast as bad news!

Writer Douglas Adams used this concept in his science fiction comedy The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, in which a spaceship travels at amazing speed because it is powered by bad news. He said that, unfortunately, when the Bad News Drive spaceship arrived at its destination it was always very unwelcome!