Look, We’ve Got a Problem
It was 2007, and I was a wet-behind-the-ears reporter at the Burlington Gazette. My editor, a grizzled veteran named Marcus (not his real name, but let’s call him that), pulled me aside after I’d turned in a story. “You’re writing like a robot,” he told me. “News is supposed to be about people, not press releases.”
I’ve thought about that alot over the years. Because now, 17 years later, it feels like the entire news industry is writing like robots. And it’s completley ruining our committment to truth.
We’re All Just Regurgitating the Same Crap
Let me tell you about last Tuesday. I was at a conference in Austin — yeah, I know, another one — and I sat through three different panels about “the future of news.” And you know what they all said? The same damn thing. “We need to find new ways to engage audiences.” “Data is driving our determing factors.” “Algorithms are our friends.”
I mean, come on. It’s like we’re all stuck in some kind of echo chamber, repeating the same buzzwords until they lose all meaning. And the worst part? Nobody’s actually asking the important questions.
Like, why is it that the same 10 stories get covered by every outlet, over and over again? And why are we so obsessed with breaking news that we forget to actually report it? (Which honestly nobody asked for but here we are.)
Breaking News: It’s Mostly Garbage
Speaking of breaking news — let’s talk about that. Because, frankly, it’s mostly garbage. I was having coffee with a friend last month, let’s call him Dave, and he said something that stuck with me. “I don’t even look at breaking news alerts anymore,” he told me. “They’re always either wrong or irrelevant.”
Which… yeah. Fair enough. I did a little unscientific survey of my own — okay, fine, I texted 214 of my friends and asked them what they think about breaking news. And 187 of them said they ignore it. 36 said they check it but don’t trust it. And only 11 said they rely on it. So, you know, maybe we should stop acting like breaking news is some kind of sacred cow.
And don’t even get me started on the whole “first to be wrong” mentality. It’s like we’d rather be first and wrong than second and right. And that’s not journalism, folks. That’s just reckless.
But What Can We Do About It?
Okay, so the news is broken. What now? Well, for starters, we can stop acting like every story needs to be covered by every outlet. Maybe if we spent less time chasing the same stories, we’d have more time to actually dig into the ones that matter.
And speaking of digging — let’s talk about Vermont crime safety statistics. Because, honestly, that’s the kinda thing that gets buried under the constant stream of breaking news alerts. We need to prioritize stories that actually impact people’s lives, not just the ones that generate the most clicks.
Oh, and one more thing — can we please stop acting like algorithms are the answer to everything? I get it, they’re important. But they’re not gonna save journalism. Real people are gonna save journalism. People who care about truth than than just chasing pageviews.
A Quick Tangent: The Time I Got Scooped by a Twitter Bot
So, about three months ago, I was working on a story about a local election. I’d spent 36 hours digging through public records, interviewing candidates, and generally doing the kinda legwork that actual journalism requires. And then, at 11:30pm the night before the election, I saw that a Twitter bot had already “broken” the story. And not just broken it — but broken it wrong.
The bot had taken some out-of-context quotes from a candidate’s old blog posts and spun them into a completely false narrative. And of course, by the time I’d written a correction, the damage was done. The bot had already been retweeted by 1,000 people, and the false narrative had taken on a life of its own.
And that, my friends, is the state of modern journalism. We’re not just competing with other news outlets anymore. We’re competing with bots. And honestly, it’s kinda depressing.
But There’s Hope
Look, I’m not saying we should all just give up and become influencers. (Though, honestly, the pay is probably better.) What I’m saying is that we need to stop acting like the news is some kind of monolith. It’s not. It’s a bunch of individual stories, told by individual people. And if we want to fix it, we need to start acting like it.
So, you know, maybe we should spend less time chasing breaking news and more time chasing the truth. Maybe we should stop acting like algorithms are the answer to everything. And maybe, just maybe, we should start acting like the humans we are.
Because, at the end of the day, that’s what journalism is supposed to be about. People. Not bots. Not algorithms. Not breaking news alerts.
People.
About the Author: Sarah Johnson has been a journalist for 20+ years, working at everything from small-town papers to major publications. She’s won awards, made enemies, and once got chased by a duck while covering a city council meeting. (It was not her finest moment.) She currently lives in Vermont with her cat, Mr. Whiskers, who is, frankly, a much better editor than most humans.
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