The 24-hour news cycle

The 24-hour news cycle is ruining politics

The relentless 24-hour news cycle and social media landscape have fundamentally altered political discourse by prioritizing quick, performative reactions over thoughtful deliberation, says Emma Revell

Of course, rolling news isn’t going anywhere. Unless politicians lose all semblance of control of their worst nannying instincts, neither is social media. And before we blame the hacks crowded on the Downing Street pavement, it’s worth remembering they’re only there because we’re watching. The doorstep circus runs on our attention. If we actually wanted politicians to think before they spoke, we might need to give them a moment in which to do it.

Some of us aren't watching though. Maybe public interest in 'the news' is dwindling and this also explains the 24-hour news cycle. 

Maybe it's big media engaged in frantic competition with social media and the smaller guys. The BBC is certainly becoming frantic in its attempts to avoid relying on a voluntary subscription model. 

Politics - it's just a game

Count Binface given major boost in upcoming clash with Nigel Farage

Defence secretary wishes Count Binface ‘good luck’ in by-election showdown with Farage

Farage vs Count Binface? Parties rule out standing against Nigel in Clacton by-election 'circus'

Count Binface speaks out as he becomes Nigel Farage's sole Clacton by-election challenger

Only Count Binface willing to take on Farage’s ‘fake and pathetic’ by-election

Who is Count Binface? Odds slashed on comedian beating Farage in Clacton

Could Farage lose his seat to Count Binface? By-election descends into farce as everyone except comedy candidate pulls out

At least sometimes or often

I’m a psychologist. Here’s why 40 per cent of the world avoids reading the news

What’s the solution to news fatigue? Well, it’s not avoidance. A democracy depends on informed citizens

During several recent conversations, people have told me that they’ve stopped checking their phones in the morning. Not because nothing was happening, but because everything was. They described the feeling as standing under a waterfall of perpetual bad news.

This experience is far from an isolated one. According to the Reuters Institute’s 2025 Digital News Report, 69 per cent of Canadians at least occasionally avoid the news now.

Globally, 40 per cent report they at least sometimes or often do the same, the highest figure ever recorded. People shared consistent reasons for this: the news put them in a bad mood, they felt overwhelmed and powerless to act.


This story from an outfit which peddles climate doom as one of its doom staples. Don't they realise that at least sometimes or often many of us find it entertaining? Some of us couldn't enjoy our morning coffee without it.

I'm not a psychologist, but at least sometimes or often I check the Independent for a morning lift. It's a confirmation that all is as it was, nonsense hasn't been supplanted from its global throne and the world of mainstream media isn't likely to become disturbingly rational.

How not to survive the information crisis

From the Guardian - a journalist's cry for help in a world of easily accessed information, but also an article which inadvertently supports those who say feelings have replaced thinking in the modern world. 

Ideas are in there like currants in a bun, but feelings hold it together, not analysis. Presumably that's not the intention behind the article, but the interest lies in what it doesn't say, not the feelings it attempts to convey.   

How to survive the information crisis: ‘We once talked about fake news – now reality itself feels fake’

In this age of crisis, technology is pulling us apart. At its best, journalism can bring us together again, writes Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner

I have a confession to make. It has taken me years to write this article.

For a long time, I have felt that something was missing in the public conversation about human connection and community and how they are being eroded. And yet I haven’t been able to articulate it. Thinking and writing have become harder. It’s as if the neurons in my brain don’t connect with each other in quite the same way. I go to check a fact and get instantly diverted by a hundred other distractions on my phone. I find myself unable to devote time to thinking and writing like I used to.

It could be the relentless news agenda, but the news has been relentless throughout my 11 years as editor-in-chief of the Guardian. It could be age, but I’m not that old. It could be menopause, but I’m on all the drugs.

No, I think it’s because of something that many of us feel in this moment. That our attention spans have been degraded, our thinking skills blunted. That we somehow can’t concentrate or lose ourselves in a project. Finding myself stuck, as an experiment, I asked an AI tool to write this article for me, just to see what it came up with. The result was insufferably pompous and joyless. A reminder of the limits of this technology, for now at least.

Attack of the Opinion-Page Generals

Peter O'Brien has a topical Quadrant piece on Trump, Iran and the tendency of so many commentators to assume their views should count. As O'Brien points out, that's not Trump's view and there is no reason why it should be.
 

Attack of the Opinion-Page Generals

I watched President Trump’s address to the US nation last week on Sky News. My immediate reaction was that he had done a pretty good job. So, I was startled at the overwhelmingly negative reaction of commentators Laura Jayes and Jonathan Kearsley. It seems that the President had failed to answer their questions. That he had added nothing new to what he had already told them. They seemed genuinely puzzled by this dereliction on the part of the leader of another country. Did it occur them, I wonder, that they were not included in Trump’s intended audience?

A few minutes earlier, Jayes had expressed the view that the Iran incursion might just be the next logical step in a strategy that involved the US becoming even less dependent on the Middle East for oil. The lightbulb glowed, however dimly, with the appreciation that there might be method in his madness. But that thought seemed to evaporate immediately post Trump’s address.


The whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that Operation Epic Fury was not intended to please anyone Trump and the US do not need to please at this time. This includes numerous journalists, celebrities, pundits,  politicians and national leaders such as Keir Starmer.


If only President Trump had stuck to the ‘rules-based order’ and acted with the steely determination of, say, President Obama or the crystalline moral clarity of, say, President Biden, oil would still be below $100 a barrel. That has been the maysayers’ chorus. Of course, Iran would be that much closer to having a nuclear bomb. But would they use it? Probably not. Maybe not. Fingers crossed.

Hit or Miss

Any ballistic missile fired by Iran at London would be shot down, signals Cabinet minister

Communities Secretary Steve Reed says the UK has systems in place to protect the capital after Iran fired missiles towards a UK-US base, raising concerns over their potential reach

UK may have to rely on US if Iran targets London, experts warn

After Iran target a US-UK airbase over 2,500 miles away, defence experts are concerned over the regime's offensive capabilities

Either way there could be yet another panic about toilet paper.

Headlines - the decline continues

UK households with air fryers face £126 charges from April

According to comparison site Go Compare, the average air fryer uses anything between 800 watts and 2,000 watts per hour to heat up and cook food. An average air fryer would cost 39p to run for an hour right now, or £141.50 per year if run for one hour per day.

But with the new prices from April, the cost will drop to £126.06 per year, after the cost per hour decreases to 35p. Overall, it's a decrease of £15.44 per year from April, when prices drop.

And more good news is that, generally, it's still cheaper to run an air fryer than an oven.

My underlining.

Although there are so many dodgy headlines out there in Media Land that we develop an eye for the more entertaining attempts to grab our attention. I reckon it's a job I could do, for example -

Mum Gail says her toilet is haunted by the ghost of a nineteenth century milkman

Rare tropical fish discovered in sock drawer

Keir Starmer to make vitally important announcement on AI

I'm not sure about the stories below the headlines, but maybe I could leave that to AI.

Fuel For Stories

Queues grow at London petrol stations amid fears of price rise linked to Middle East war: Reports of forecourts running dry

Petrol stations appear to be running out of fuel as Brits scramble to fill up their vehicles before oil prices surge to 'record levels'.

The conflict in the Middle East has affected the transport of fuel to the West after companies suspended sailing through the Strait of Hormuz following Iranian attacks on ships and ports.


Not here, I topped up this morning and soon we'll burn some off on a trip to Matlock. 

What voters are thinking

‘We’ve already given up on Labour’: What voters are thinking in key by-election

Sipping a cup of tea at Colin’s Cafe in Longsight Market, John Hanrahan believes only a fraction of those perusing the stalls will have heard that Labour’s former US ambassador Peter Mandelson was arrested yesterday...

“I don’t give a toss, they should be sorting out the problems that were all now in.

“You [journalists] write about crap, you don’t write about anything that you should be writing about.


Journalists write about crap? Surely not.


Coronation Street star criticises soap’s ‘crime-heavy’ storylines

Coronation Street star Sally Ann Matthews, who left the show last year, has hit out at the ITV soap for focusing on crime plots.

Squirrel

Ed Miliband 'should end mad ban on North Sea oil' as study eviscerates net zero plan

Britain cannot "just stop oil" despite government attempts to wean the country off fossil fuels which are making the UK poorer, dirtier and less secure, a report has warned. A paper from the Institute of Economic Affairs shreds Labour's case for ending North Sea oil and warns that it will damage the economy, drive up emissions and threaten the country's energy security.


Look, a squirrel -


Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested on his birthday

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested on his 66th birthday. Thames Valley Police said has been held on suspicion of misconduct in public office. His arrest was revealed today after police were seen at Sandringham, where the King's younger brother is staying. Six unmarked police cars arrived at King Charles' Norfolk estate at just after 8am this morning. Onlookers said the group of eight people were in plain clothes 'but appeared to be police officers'. One man appeared to be carrying a police-issue laptop.

Beyond the Sleaze

It's telling how our local sleaze-fest tends to obscure all kinds of stories about events in the wider world. This one for instance, which may be more significant than we are allowed to know.

 
Behind Turkmenistan’s Neutrality, Quiet U.S. Military Ties Endure

In late January, U.S. Special Envoy for South and Central Asia, Sergio Gor visited Turkmenistan. Accompanying Gor was U.S. Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll.

Driscoll’s presence in Turkmenistan, a country with a roughly 1,150-kilometer border with Iran, sparked some speculation that his visit was related to escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran. But while it is unusual for any top foreign military officials to visit Turkmenistan, U.S. military officials have stopped by Turkmenistan relatively often over the course of the last 30 years...

Much about the U.S.-Turkmen military relationship remains unknown, save to a select few in those two countries, but it is clear these ties are enduring and important for Turkmenistan.

Outrage Block

A problem with the Peter Mandelson debacle is how difficult it is to crank up some outrage, a flicker of surprise or even a raised eyebrow. 

There is one interesting question though - will Keir Starmer try to deny that he appointed Mandelson as Ambassador to the United States?  

Meanwhile the Daily Express has a more important aspect to relate -


Politics live: Nigel Farage makes huge announcement as Keir Starmer in crisis

Nigel Farage gave a Reform UK press conference today as Sir Keir Starmer faces a crisis over Lord Mandelson.

The Reform leader unveiled his party's five-point plan to "save Britain's pubs".

Chopped Off

Scientists Warn Sun Could Vaporise Earth—Why This Matters to Life as We Know

Warning issued

Among numerous media headlines worth avoiding, the 'warning issued' headline is up there among the more obvious examples of the genre, but there are many more. 

Warning issued to anyone with magpies in their garden

Warning issued for all UK petrol and diesel drivers which 'can not be explained'

Warning issued to drivers filling up at Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s or Morrisons this week

Major warning issued as lethal plant that 'can kill in hours' washes up on UK beach

Air fryer fire warning issued to millions this Christmas

'Significant disruption' expected as new weather warning issued

Another Fine Mess

Another fine example of the lunatic complexities of UK taxation. Maybe Rachel from Accounts will spend it wisely. Ho Ho Ho.

Morrisons on brink of £17m bill after losing court battle over rotisserie chickens

Morrisons could be hit with a £17m bill after losing a lengthy legal battle over its rotisserie chickens. The UK supermarket chain has been fighting a 13-year dispute in court to prevent value added tax (VAT) from being added to the chickens. However, the UK High Court ruled on Thursday that the product should be subject to the charge of 20%, as it falls under the category of hot food.

Morrisons argued that its rotisserie chickens should be exempt from VAT because the product is typically eaten cold or reheated later in the day. But, the ruling on December 11 said that the supermarket chain sold the items in packaging for hot food with a label which reads: "Caution: Hot Product".

Clickbait headlines are everywhere

NASA Scientists Discover DNA & RNA in Asteroid Bennu

In a remarkable scientific breakthrough, NASA has confirmed that samples returned from asteroid Bennu contain all five nucleobases used to build DNA and RNA, alongside 14 amino acids essential for life as we know it...

The building blocks of life, specifically adenine, guanine, cytosine, uracil, and thymine, were identified inside briny mineral deposits in the asteroid’s dust and rocks. This suggests Bennu, or its ancient parent body, once hosted small bodies of water.

It's a most interesting finding and the whole article is well worth reading, but why bung such an obvious exaggeration into the headline? DNA and RNA haven't been discovered in samples returned from asteroid Bennu, but clickbait rules presumably.

Clickbait headlines are everywhere, degrading everything they touch, even worthwhile articles and stories.

Two Headlines

Climate change means many kids in Lancashire no longer have sledges in the shed

Anyone still in doubt about the impact of climate change should think back to the winters of the 90s when sledges were found in the sheds of most Lancashire families.

Rising temperatures due to climate change has led to milder winters and fewer occasions when schools are closed, youngsters can go sledging and cars had to be dug out of the drifts.

Lancs warned to brace for snow this week as weather chart predicts freeze

People in Lancs are being warned to prepare for snow as new weather maps predict 50 UK counties will be blanketed when temperatures plummet this week.

The warning arrives as the Met Office expects the freezing blast to bring temperatures as cold as -7C to multiple regions as Arctic air arrives from the north.

You can just ignore journalists

Ben Sixsmith has a useful Critic piece on the loosening of the narrative grip exerted by mainstream media. Worth reading. 


You can just ignore journalists

The fact that something is being treated as controversial does not actually make it controversial

In 2019, the New Statesman published an interview with the late conservative philosopher Roger Scruton. Scruton was reported to have made “a series of outrageous remarks” — about a “Soros empire”, for example, and about Chinese people being “robots”.

Scruton was a titan of British conservatism. Conservative MPs hurried to prove themselves — by throwing him under the bus. “Antisemitism sits alongside racism, anti-Islam, homophobia, and sexism as a cretinous and divisive belief that has no place in our public life,” yelped Tom Tugendhat MP, “And particularly not in government.” “No brainer,” snorted Johnny Mercer MP, “Let’s not take our time on this. @TomTugendhat absolutely right.” Scruton was promptly fired, and the New Statesman’s George Eaton posted a photo of himself drinking champagne.

Eaton, it turned out, had done a poor journalistic job. When Scruton had talked about Chinese people being “robots”, a transcript revealed, he was referring to government conditioning and not to their essential nature. Other “outrageous remarks” simply were not outrageous. If we can refer to a “Murdoch empire”, or a “Koch empire”, why can we not refer to a “Soros empire”? Scruton was reinstated amid awkward apologies.

The lesson for British right-wingers should have been clear. When a journalist says “jump”, you don’t have to ask “how high?”

The Fakest People In The Media

Andrew Gold interviews Mike Graham on some of the weird and dubious media characters he has encountered. An hour long, but consistently interesting and entertaining.

 

Easy Question

Mad science or a radical revolution - could refreezing the Arctic actually work?

A new report has reopened the controversy over so-called geoengineering.

Plans to save ice in the polar regions and "repair" the climate using technology are a "flawed" distraction from the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gases, according to a new scientific assessment.

But Professor Martin Siegert, a glaciologist at the University of Exeter, who led the new assessment, told Sky News that using technology to fix the problem was a "false promise".

The question is trivially easy for anyone paying attention - it's mad science...

Correction - it's bent science, but we knew that too.

It's almost as if Blob media is edging painfully, step by grudging step towards a view that politically favoured scientists are not universally trustworthy. Even worse, climate sceptics may have been right for decades. My word that must sting, so go slowly chaps, it eases the pain.