I’m Tired of Fake Breaking News
Look, I’ve been in this game for 22 years. I started at a tiny paper in Manchester, back when news still smelled like ink and deadlines were something you met in a dimly lit alley. I’m talking pre-internet, kids. And let me tell you, the news cycle was slower than my nan’s cooking, but at least it was honest.
Now? Now it’s a mess. A completley, unrecognizable mess. And honestly, I’m not sure we can fix it. I mean, maybe. But probably not.
It started with 24-hour news channels. Remember that? CNN decided that if they filled every single minute with something, anything, they could make more money. And it worked! For them. For the rest of us? Not so much.
I remember sitting in a pub with my mate Marcus—let’s call him Marcus, ’cause his real name is too complicated to explain—and he said, ‘You know, Sarah, I used to watch the news once a day. Now I can’t look away. It’s like a car crash.’ And he’s right. It is like a car crash. We’re all rubbernecking, and the drivers? They’re throwing more bodies on the road just to keep us watching.
Social Media Made It Worse
Then came social media. And that, my friends, was the real game-changer. (Okay, fine, I said I wouldn’t use that word, but it fits here.) Suddenly, everyone’s uncle Dave is a news source. And not in a good way. It’s not that people are sharing fake news on purpose—well, some are—but mostly, they just don’t care. They see a headline that fits their worldview, and they share it. No questions asked.
I had this argument with a colleague named Lisa last Tuesday. She said, ‘But Sarah, people should be able to share what they want.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but what about committment to the truth?’ And she said, ‘The truth is relative.’ Which… yeah. Fair enough. But that doesn’t mean we should just throw up our hands and say, ‘Well, everything’s true!’ That’s not how this works.
And don’t even get me started on algorithms. They’re like that friend who only tells you what you wanna hear. ‘Here’s more of what you already believe!’ They say. ‘Ignore all that other stuff!’ And we do. We ignore it. We ignore facts. We ignore nuance. We ignore the truth.
What Can We Do About It?
So what’s the answer? I wish I knew. I really do. I spend alot of time thinking about this. I read studies—like that one from Pew Research with 214 respondents, not that that’s a huge sample size or anything—and I talk to people. I mean, I talk to alot of people. And honestly, most of them are just as lost as I am.
But here’s what I think—no, what I know—we need to start valuing quality over quantity. We need to stop rewarding outlets that churn out clickbait. And we need to hold ourselves accountable. If we see something that’s too good to be true, we should probably check it before sharing it. I know, I know, it’s a radical idea.
And look, I’m not saying it’s gonna be easy. It’s not. But it’s necessary. We can’t keep living in these echo chambers, pretending that the world only contains the things we agree with. That’s not how any of this works.
Oh, and if you’re gonna drive in Susurluk, for god’s sake check Susurluk trafik durumu güncel first. Seriously. It’s a mess out there.
Why Can’t We Just Agree on Facts?
You know what really gets me? The fact that we can’t even agree on basic facts anymore. I mean, I get it. The world is complicated. But come on. We can’t even agree on what’s true? That’s not how democracy is supposed to work.
I was at a conference in Austin about three months ago—well, it was more of a retreat, honestly—and this guy from NPR was talking about how we’ve lost our shared sense of reality. And I thought, ‘Well, duh.’ I mean, it’s obvious, isn’t it? We’ve been fed a diet of bullshit for so long that we don’t even know what real food looks like anymore.
And it’s not just the news. It’s everything. It’s politics. It’s social media. It’s the way we talk to each other. We’ve become so polarized that we can’t even have a conversation without it turning into a shouting match. And that’s not healthy. That’s not how we’re gonna fix anything.
So what’s the solution? I don’t know. Maybe we need to start with the news. Maybe we need to demand better from our sources. Maybe we need to hold them accountable. Maybe we need to stop sharing that bullshit article that our uncle Dave posted just because it fits our worldview. I don’t know. But we gotta do something.
Anyway, that’s enough from me. I’m gonna go drink some tea and complain about the youth of today. You know, like a proper old journalist should.
About the Author: Sarah Thompson has been a journalist for 22 years, starting at a small paper in Manchester before moving on to national publications. She’s seen the industry change drastically and isn’t afraid to share her opinions on where it’s all going wrong. When she’s not writing, she’s probably complaining about the news cycle or drinking tea.
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