When I tune in to the otherwise excellent high-energy podcast The News Agents, I find myself turning it off whenever the content veers—yet again—into another focus on Nigel Farage. The editorial stance seems clear: “Farage brings in the listeners.” the very antithesis of independent journalism. This approach seems to be justified by what can only be described as the hilarious claim that the two main parties could potentially be defeated by Reform. With a voting system like ours, that’s nothing short of preposterous—utterly, as Jon Sopel might say, “bat-shit crazy.
The problem with modern news cycles is that they’re more about chasing narratives than offering the common sense of long-term thinking. The News Agents were among the worst offenders during Elon Musk’s spat with Keir Starmer, spinning it into an almost apocalyptic scenario of Labour falling out with “Saint Elon” being the beginning of the end for the three month old Labour Government. But whoever advised Sir Keir to ignore Musk was absolutely right: Ignore him, and he’ll likely move on.
But then, to up the ante, Nigel Farage floats the absurd idea that Saint Elon might donate £100,000,000 to Reform. Next election in the bag, ‘right’, News Agents? Let’s be serious—such a sum doesn’t even come close to “buying the British voter.” Yet the narrative marches on.
And so begins the next cycle. Nige is now at odds with Kemi Badenoch. Trigger-happy Kemi accuses him of inflating Reform’s membership numbers to suggest they’ve overtaken the Conservatives, claims which Farage denies. But what she isn’t wrong about is that Reform receives disproportionate media coverage. Meanwhile, Saint Elon faces a conundrum: How can he maintain his ire against Keir Starmer while ostensibly supporting Reform, which is now at war with the Conservatives?
Adding to the circus, Labour’s so-called “Prince of Darkness,” now the British Ambassador to the USA, reportedly has ideas about “utilising” Farage—a strange twist given the liberal media’s swift pivot from portraying Saint Elon as Labour’s destroyer to his newfound interest in Germany’s far-right AfD party.
The broader point here is how the media—aghast at the rise of populism—can’t seem to resist feeding off it. The “now, now, now” nature of news delivery has turned petulant, tripping over itself to elevate the so-called bad guys as protagonists, when the reality is that they are not, they just shout the loudest. All this, of course, in a bid to sensationalize and sell content, even when there’s no real hope of populism upending the political order. But hey, it makes for good headlines.
Fortunately, with the rise of podcasts, many of the top British ones—The Rest is Politics and Political Currency being my personal favourites (I know, I’ve even warmed to George Osborne and his dreadful jokes)—steer clear of the race to the bottom. They’ve avoided succumbing to the desire to create a low-grade, tabloid-style podcast genre. Instead, they’re bucking the trend of sensationalism and delivering good old riveting political discourse. These podcasts are absorbing, thought-provoking, and refreshingly free from the manufactured obsession with what’s merely trending in the news—because, let’s face it, a lot of that isn’t all that interesting.
When it’s on its game, The News Agents can be the best podcast out there. But it’s so hit-and-miss. At its best, it delivers sharp, compelling commentary. At its worst, it descends into the kind of trend-chasing that undermines its credibility.
The best way to stop populism from seeping further into this country is simple: ignore the likes of Nige and players like Saint Elon trying to interfere. Starve them of the oxygen of attention, and they’ll wither away. Podcasts like The Rest is Politics and Political Currency understand this—by focusing on thoughtful, measured discussion rather than sensationalist distractions, they’re not only elevating political discourse but also countering the very forces they criticize.
The Rights of Fans. 