THE 24 HOUR NEWS CYCLE

It's made its presence felt with a vengeance. It's seen on every channel attempting to be serious about its news. But is it a good thing?

No one's said it better than 'the sexiest man alive' - George Clooney, in this brilliant interview in Newsweek:

"We have fallen in love with the 24-hour news cycle. But 24-hour news does not mean that you get more news, it means you get the same news more. We came back from China and Egypt and it hit the news cycle very quickly, and for about five minutes it was getting a lot of play. And then that afternoon three hikers got stuck up on a mountain in Oregon, and it was 24 hours of three guys stuck up on a mountain. A tragedy, but it is three guys who chose to go out on a mountain for sport and had a terrible accident. Yet there were hundreds and hundreds of people dying in vicious attacks in places all around the world; there were tons of news stories that day that were so much more important to what was going on in the world. I just worry that we have lost our balls for reporting. We constantly underestimate the intelligence and interest in the audience."