There used to be a saying about today's news being tomorrow's fish & chip wrapping. In the digital age, news (and commentary on it) has taken on an even greater transience.
Much of the commentary literally doesn't matter. Sometimes this happens within a few hours, let alone by tomorrow.
We all rush around (myself included) with our thoughts immersed in the flickering characters on our phone screens. We don't like to admit it but we are urgently seeking our next dopamine rush.
Truth and legitimate consideration have become casualties the rush to supply our demand. There simply isn't a paying audience for longer, more nuanced news anymore.
News gets dumbed down. Journalists become disillusioned. The people are bombarded with bullshit. The race to the bottom accelerates.
Our is a flashy Dark Age. There's as much point in holding the likes of Ogden to account for remarks made months previously as there is in asking a mayfly what it thinks of Christmas. (Similar intellectual capacity and all).
The best thing to do is withhold our attention. Not only for the good of our own mental health but because in these times, our attention is one of the things that makes our being here a valuable commodity.
If some twats like Ogden or Talkshite or Sky's gallery of gibbering idiots say something dumb. Let them. Move on.
Highlighting their remarks - especially after any decent length of time - only endows them with a gravity to which they were never entitled.
www.thetimes.com