Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of Semafor, said the evolution of online media throughout the past two decades has produced significantly “compressed” news cycles.
Smith previously served as the former media columnist for The New York Times and founding editor in chief of BuzzFeed News prior to founding Semafor in 2022.
Before that, Smith reported for the Observer, the New York Daily News, and German-owned Politico and authored several blogs focused on American politics.
At 48 years old, Smith said he believes he is among the generation of journalists who were forced to embrace online journalism in the early 2000s to stay relevant and compete with the evolving news cycle.
“I think I was of the generation of journalists where you really saw the wave of the internet coming and realized you either needed to surf on it or it was gonna crush you. So I got into internet journalism early. I was blogging in 2004,” Smith explained on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“It was a moment when just being on the internet was this massive advantage,” Smith added. “If you went to an Obama press conference, held your little video camera and filmed a terrible video of him talking and uploaded it to YouTube…it was the only way to watch what had happened [before the networks aired it].”
Smith discussed how the news cycle, from the beginning of the digital age to now, has “compressed,” noting how, just this morning, the news cycle changed so rapidly that the stock market was impacted by an online report that ended up being false.
“A couple of hours ago, markets fell really hard. And then some guy tweets…that the White House economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, said Trump is considering a 90 day pause on tariffs…Markets shoot into the green. Then, CNBC gets a hold of the White House which said this is fake news, this is nonsense. Markets plummet back down,” Smith explained.
Smith pointed out that while the news cycle has been dramatically compressed over the years, the inaccuracy of reports has also risen.
“I actually think the news cycle has compressed really dramatically…I think we are really now in this fog of war moment though, where the news cycle’s not only compressed, but it’s hard to know what to believe,” Smith said.
Tune in now to The Michael Patrick Leahy Show – your AMERICA FIRST news talk with @AGTennessee and then, @Semafor editor-in-chief @semaforBen Smith
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
