A reflection on how broadcasting has shifted from its original public mission — to inform, to educate, to entertain — into a marketplace driven by attention, emotion, and confirmation. From medieval town criers to the BBC, from early newspapers to today’s partisan media, the thirst for drama and validation has always shaped the news. This essay asks what broadcasting is now for, why audiences gravitate toward outrage and simplicity, and why I write without seeking approval — letting my thoughts exist, like Shakespeare’s sonnet, for those who may one day find them.
John Betjeman’s Summoned by Bells is more than an autobiography in verse — it is a meditation on beauty, memory, and faith at the twilight of English modernity. Beneath its gentle rhythms lies a profound moral vision: that sound, place, and craftsmanship can still unite a fractured nation. Betjeman’s England is not nostalgic fantasy but a living cathedral of meaning, where stone and song meet the sacred.