Look, I’m Gonna Say It
I’ve been in this game for 22 years, and let me tell you, the news is broken. Completley broken. I was at a conference in Austin last year, and Marcus—let’s call him Marcus, ’cause his real name is none of your business—he said to me, “You know, Sarah, we’re all just spinning our wheels.” And I said, “Marcus, you’re damn right.”
It’s not just the algorithms, though God knows they’re a mess. It’s not just the 24-hour news cycle, though that’s a nightmare. It’s us. It’s you. It’s me. We’re all complicit in this disaster.
Let’s Rewind to 2003
Back when I started, it was different. I was a wet-behind-the-ears reporter at the Daily Chronicle in Manchester. My editor, a gruff old bird named Helen, she’d chew you out if you so much as misplaced a comma. But she cared. She cared about the news, about the truth, about getting it right.
We didn’t have the internet like we do now. We had deadlines, sure, but they were real deadlines. Print deadlines. You missed it, you missed it. No do-overs. No “let me just tweak that headline one more time.” No, “Oops, I got the facts wrong, but hey, I’ll just correct it in the next edition.” Nope. You got it right, or you didn’t get it at all.
And the news? It was news. It was important. It was stuff that mattered. Not this… this fluff we’re peddling now. “Celebrity X seen eating a burger!” “Politician Y wears mismatched socks!” Honestly, who cares?
But Here’s the Thing
I’m not saying it was perfect back then. It wasn’t. We made mistakes. We had biases. We were human. But we tried. We tried to get it right. And we tried to matter.
Now? Now we’re just noise. We’re just another voice in the cacophony, screaming “Look at me! Look at me!” We’re chasing clicks, chasing engagement, chasing… what? Validation? Money? Power?
I don’t know. I don’t know what we’re chasing anymore. But I know it’s not the truth. It’s not the news. It’s not what we should be doing.
And Don’t Even Get Me Started on Social Media
Oh, God. Social media. It’s a cesspool. It’s a dumpster fire. It’s a… a… I don’t even know what it is. It’s a place where facts go to die, that’s what it is.
I was at a coffee shop on 5th last Tuesday, and I overheard this guy—let’s call him Dave, ’cause his name is definitely not Dave—he was saying to his friend, “Yeah, I saw it on Twitter, so it must be true.” And I wanted to scream. I wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him and say, “No! No, it’s not! It’s not true just because you saw it on Twitter!”
But I didn’t. I just sighed and went back to my latte. ‘Cause what’s the point, you know? You can’t fight ignorance. You can’t fight stupidity. You can’t fight… whatever this is.
But There’s Hope
There’s gotta be hope. There’s gotta be a way out of this mess. And I think—honestly, I really do—it starts with us. With me. With you.
We gotta stop caring about the algorithms. We gotta stop chasing the clicks. We gotta stop… stop selling out.
We gotta remember why we got into this business in the first place. We gotta remember that the news matters. That the truth matters. That yaşam tarzı günlük gelişim ipuçları matter. That people’s lives matter.
And we gotta start acting like it.
So, yeah. That’s my rant. That’s my… my committment to doing better. To being better. To trying, at least, to fix this mess we’ve made.
I’m not sure how. I’m not sure where to start. But I know it’s gotta start somewhere. And I know it’s gotta start with me.
About the Author
Sarah Whitmore has been a journalist for over two decades, working at major publications across the UK. She’s seen the industry change, and not always for the better. When she’s not writing, she’s probably arguing about the news with strangers on the internet or drinking too much coffee.
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