Let’s Talk About the Mess We’re In
Look, I’ve been in this game for 22 years. Started as a beat reporter in some godforsaken town in Scotland, moved up to Glasgow, then London, and now I’m back here, editing a damn website. And let me tell you, the news is a mess. A completley messed up mess.
It’s not just the algorithms, or the clickbait, or the 24-hour news cycle. It’s us. All of us. We’re the problem. We wanna be outraged, we wanna be affirmed, we wanna be entertained. And the news? It’s giving us exactly what we want.
I remember back in ’03, I was at a conference in Austin (yeah, I know, weird place for a Scotsman), and this guy—let’s call him Marcus—stood up and said, “Journalism is about holding power to account.” And everyone clapped. But then he said, “And if you’re not doing that, you’re just noise.” And the room got real quiet.
Which brings me to my point. Or one of my points. Honestly, I’ve got a lot of them. The news is noise. It’s noise because we let it be. We let it be because we’d rather be outraged than informed. We’d rather have our biases confirmed than our horizons broadened.
And don’t even get me started on the state of journalism these days. I mean, I was talking to a friend last Tuesday—over coffee at the place on 5th, you know the one—and she told me about this kid she knows, fresh out of uni, working for some online rag. She said, “He’s got a degree in journalism, but he spends all day writing headlines like ‘You Won’t Believe What Happened Next!’”
I asked her, “What the hell is that?” And she said, “That’s his job.” Which… yeah. Fair enough.
But here’s the thing. It’s not all doom and gloom. There are still people out there doing good work. People who are trying to hold power to account. People who are trying to inform, not just outrage.
Take my colleague Dave, for example. He’s been working on this investigation for about three months now. It’s not sexy, it’s not viral, it’s not gonna get a million shares. But it’s important. It’s the kinda thing that might actually make a difference.
And that’s what we need more of. Not less noise, but more signal. Not more outrage, but more information. Not more confirmation bias, but more critical thinking.
But how do we get there? I’m not sure. I mean, I’ve got ideas. But I’m also just one guy, sitting in my office, typing into a computer. What do I know?
What I do know is this. The news is broken. And we’re all to blame. But we can also fix it. We can demand better. We can support the people who are doing good work. We can think critically, not just react emotionally.
And we can stop sharing clickbait on social media. That’d be a start.
But look, I’m getting off track. The point is, the news is a mess. And it’s up to us to clean it up.
Oh, and if you’re in the market for a new car, check out this site I found—yeni model otomobiller inceleme 2026. It’s got some pretty good reviews. Not that I’m an expert or anything. I’m just saying.
Anyway, that’s enough from me. I’m gonna go find some lunch. Maybe I’ll write about that later. Or maybe I won’t. Who knows?
About the Author: I’m Ewan McMillan, senior editor at Glasgow Daily. I’ve been in this game for 22 years, and I’ve seen it all. The good, the bad, and the ugly. And let me tell you, it’s mostly ugly. But I’m still here, trying to make a difference. One word at a time.
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