Who remembers the days when supposed ‘news’ media actually had journalists who got off their arses and went out to research items and then composed an exclusive meaty article which exposed us to the sordid facts about ‘stuff’ which we would then gasp at in shock?
Yes, that’s really what they used to do.
But oh how things have so badly changed. Even places you’d expect to be at the forefront of left-leaning investigative and sneering journalism like The Guardian, the Huffington Post, the BBC, etc., etc., etc., have given way to being social media ‘aggregators’.
They provide summaries and ‘catch-ups’ for those who may have missed what’s going on via ‘social meeja’. Well, not really ‘social meeja’, just Twitter. Okay, yes, now and again they’ll include the public facing bits they can read on Facebork too (Most Facebork users don’t realise that anything they write on their timeline only ever gets seen by 20 or so people at maximum these days, which is why the sofa journalists don’t see and report on them).
Of course, the sofa journos will add their own sneering politically biased slant on whatever they are reporting. Typically these sofa journos writing for The Guardian / Huffington Post / BBC will find some ‘social meeja’ faux pas to highlight from one of their pet hates like Nigel Farage. They will then grab as many actual screenshots as they can. Yeah, screenshots. Of Twitter posts. You know, like in the old days when stories included exclusive photographs taken at the scene to illustrate the words, but rather than sending off a press photographer, all they need are the screenshots they capture on their Macbook (It’s always a Macbook for the sofa journos!).
It’s important to never include any screenshots that might demonstrate that what they are summarising is a non-story, or has anything other than their biased interpretation. Writing and publishing one of these stories takes about 15 minutes end to end, and provides enough filler to make a) the political point and b) the ignorant feel that they are reading some hot investigative journalism.
Don’t these sofa journos realise that everybody that’s on social media has already seen first hand all the stuff they are summarising and aggregating?
England's England 