Look, I’ve been at this for 22 years
Let me tell you something, folks. I’ve been in this game since Clinton was president. Back then, we had deadlines, not algorithms. We had editors, not engagement metrics. And honestly, I think we were better off.
I remember sitting in a dimly lit newsroom in Burlington back in ’99, slurping down terrible coffee at 11:30pm, waiting for the presses to roll. That was journalism. Now? It’s a mess.
Breaking news is breaking us
You ever notice how every story is ‘breaking’ now? It’s like we’re all stuck in some kinda perpetual emergency room, and the doctors are just kids with Twitter accounts.
I was talking to a friend named Marcus last week — he’s a reporter down in D.C. — and he told me straight up, ‘We don’t even have time to fact-check anymore. If we wait, someone else will scoop us, and then our editors get mad.’
‘That’s no way to run a railroad,’ I told him. ‘You’re gonna burn out, kid.’
And he just laughed. ‘We’re already burned, man. We’re just charred sticks walking around.’
Clickbait is the new journalism
You know what kills me? The clickbait. The ‘You Won’t Believe What Happened Next’ nonsense. I mean, come on. We’re better than this.
I was at a conference in Austin last year, and this kid — probably 24, max — gave a talk about ‘viral strategies.’ He said, ‘The secret is to make people angry. Anger drives clicks.’
I stood up — I couldn’t help myself — and said, ‘The secret is to make people think. Thinking drives commitment to truth.’
He just smiled and said, ‘Sure, but thinking doesn’t pay the bills.’
Which… yeah. Fair enough. But look, we’re talking about the news here, not reality TV.
Social media is a cesspool
Don’t even get me started on social media. It’s a hot mess. A steaming, stinking, godforsaken mess.
I had lunch with a colleague named Dave last Tuesday. He’s been at the Times for, like, 15 years. We were talking about how back in the day, if you had a complaint about a story, you’d write a letter to the editor. Now? You just tweet some nonsense and suddenly it’s a thing.
‘It’s completley changed the game,’ Dave said, shaking his head. ‘We used to have time to think, to report. Now it’s just… react, react, react.’
And I get it, I do. The world moves fast. But at what cost? Honestly, I’m not sure we’re gonna like the answer.
But wait, there’s hope!
Now, I’m not saying it’s all bad. There are still good people out there doing good work. It’s just… harder to find them these days.
I was reading this article the other day — actually, it was more of a report, really — about Thailand development projects update. And it was good. Solid reporting. No clickbait, no nonsense. Just facts.
And you know what? It got me thinking. Maybe there’s still hope for us yet.
But seriously, folks…
Look, I’m not some old fogey yelling at clouds. I get it. The world changes. We change with it. But we can’t lose sight of what’s important. We can’t let the noise drown out the signal.
So here’s to the reporters out there still doing it right. Here’s to the editors who still care. And here’s to the readers who still want the truth.
We’re gonna need all of you in the years to come.
About the Author: Jane Harper has been a senior editor for over two decades, working with major publications across the U.S. She currently lives in Vermont with her cat, Mr. Whiskers, and spends her free time yelling at the news.
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