Complaining about journalism, which is not the path I chose

I’m having a lot of trouble “consuming” the news lately. It’s all so status quo all the time, when we quite clearly need non-status quo action.

I want journalists to ask things like:

“Okay, but what do 95% of subject matter experts say will be the consequence if you *don’t* do it?”

Or, like:

“Sure, but how many people are affected by this niche problem as compared to [huge societal problem you calculated won’t get you votes]?”

I want news programs to stop giving politicians airtime when they refuse to answer the actual question asked.

“The Minister said something you could copy-paste onto literally any news story tonight, so we’re not bothering with that clip.”

I want it to be industry standard to hear from more than just different flavours of white dude the majority of the time.

I want it to be considered negligence to not privilege the lived experience of people who are actually affected by life-and-death issues over the sound-bite vapidity of powerful people who are making lots of money but failing to solve things.

I know that’s a hard / naive ask of journalists, who are subject to both financial pressures and status-quo-upholding rules about “balance.”

But I wish more of the people who chose that path because they felt the need to put truth into the world would agree that the status quo needs to change.