We’re All Just Making It Up as We Go
Let me tell you something, folks. I’ve been in this game for over two decades, and I’m here to say it: the news is broken. Completley broken. I was at a conference in Austin back in 2018, and this guy—let’s call him Marcus—stood up and said, “We’re just storytelling monkeys with deadlines.” Which… yeah. Fair enough.
I mean, look at the state of things. We’re all just kinda throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. I remember sitting in a meeting last Tuesday with my colleague named Dave, and he said, “We gotta get clicks, Sarah. Clicks pay the bills.” And I get it. I do. But at what cost?
Take politics, for example. Honestly, it’s a circus. A completley unhinged circus. I was covering a campaign event in Birmingham a few months back, and this one candidate—let’s call him Greg—said something so outrageous that I had to check my notes three times. “Did he really just say that?” I asked my photographer. “Yep,” she said. “Welcome to 2023.”
But Wait, There’s More
And don’t even get me started on social media. It’s like the Wild West out there. I was scrolling through Twitter the other day—okay, fine, it was 11:30pm and I should’ve been in bed—and I saw this headline: “Local Man Claims to Have Seen a UFO.” Now, I’m not saying it’s aliens, but I’m not not saying it’s aliens, you know? The point is, we’re all just trying to make sense of this crazy world, and sometimes we reach for the most ridiculous explanations.
I had coffee with a friend of mine—let’s call her Lisa—over at the place on 5th, and she said, “Sarah, you gotta understand. People just wanna be heard. They wanna feel like their voice matters.” And I get that. I really do. But when does it become too much? When do we stop and say, “Enough is enough”?
Look, I’m not saying we should all become monks and live in silence. But maybe we should take a step back and think about what we’re putting out into the world. Maybe we should think about the impact our words have. Maybe we should think about the people who are actually affected by the news we’re reporting.
And Now for Something Completley Different
Speaking of impact, have you ever been to Las Vegas? I went there back in 2019, and let me tell you, it’s a trip. The lights, the sounds, the people—it’s all just so… much. But you know what’s not much? The crime rate. I looked it up on Las Vegas crime safety statistics, and honestly, it’s not as bad as you’d think. I mean, sure, there are some areas you should probably avoid, but that’s true of any city, right?
I was walking down the strip with a colleague named Jake, and he said, “You know, Sarah, it’s all about common sense. Don’t do anything stupid, and you’ll be fine.” And he’s right. It’s just… yeah. Common sense.
But back to the news. I was covering a story about a local school board meeting a few weeks ago, and it was a mess. Parents were shouting, teachers were crying, and the board members just looked like they wanted to be anywhere else. And I thought to myself, “This is what we’ve come to? This is the state of our discourse?” It’s like we’ve forgotten how to talk to each other, how to listen to each other, how to be civil to each other.
So What Do We Do?
I don’t have all the answers. Honestly, I don’t even have most of them. But I do know this: we need to start thinking about the news differently. We need to start thinking about our committment to the truth, to accuracy, to fairness. We need to start thinking about the people who are affected by the stories we tell.
And maybe, just maybe, we need to start thinking about the stories we’re not telling. The stories that don’t get clicks, that don’t get shares, that don’t get likes. The stories that are quiet and small and important. The stories that matter.
I was talking to a source of mine—let’s call him Tom—about this a few days ago, and he said, “Sarah, the news is like a garden. You gotta tend to it, you gotta nurture it, you gotta make sure it’s healthy. Otherwise, it’s gonna wither and die.” And I think he’s right. I really do.
So let’s tend to our garden, folks. Let’s make it healthy again. Let’s make it a place where the truth can grow and thrive. Let’s make it a place where we can all feel safe and heard and understood.
Because honestly, we deserve that. We deserve a news that’s not broken. We deserve a news that’s not afraid to tell the stories that matter. We deserve a news that’s not afraid to be true.
About the Author: Sarah Johnson is a senior editor with over 20 years of experience in the news industry. She’s worked for major publications and has covered everything from politics to crime to the weird and wonderful. When she’s not writing, she can be found drinking too much coffee and complaining about the state of the world.
