At the best of times, big news is a commodity. At the worst of times, tragic news becomes a comedy. This comedic element isn’t created by the events, but rather by the television news media – and the odd melange of experts, unwashed observers and political rentagobs they bring to the screen to deliver a farrago of banality and guesswork.

I’m referring of course to the incident in Woolwich today, wherein a soldier was hacked to death by two Islamists, who were then shot and severely wounded by the police. Some footage on the Al Jazheera news channel showed a young, tall black man, his hands red with blood, talking to a person who was filming the incident. The clip was nowhere to be seen on the BBCNews channel….although they did show a photo of another black man talking to somebody else. Did anyone know what this was about? No, they didn’t.

For the next two hours, we had Boris Johnson giving the “London can take it” speech, the Prime Minister saying he would return early from his hideout in Brussels, and Theresa May urging us all to be reassured by that early return. Keith Vaz (inevitably) made an appearance and was asked whether he could confirm it was a soldier who’d been murdered. No, he said, he couldn’t. An ex-cop terror consultant said he was “amazed” by what had happened, but when asked what had happened, he replied that no, he didn’t know. Various on-the-spot reporters added nothing beyond saying that it was all shocking, and a massive police operation was under way. A lecturer in safety & terror came on to say she thought it was a terrorist act, but it was too early to be sure. She did however think that security would have to be upped, but it was too late to say.

The voice of a local man in Woolwich took up several minutes of airtime making a series of bizarre statements, including one – “I mean, this bloke was wavin’ a gun at the police, I mean – even I wouldn’t do that” – which made you wonder what his profession might be. Others said they had heard both men yelling “Allahu-aqbar!” which means God is great – the standard emittance from lunatics who think they are about to claim 77 virgins in Heaven.

This is the story. There is a barracks in Woolwich. A soldier walked out of the barracks wearing a ‘Support Veterans’ teeshirt, and two black guys pounced on him with sharp weapons. At some point as the victim fled, a car hit him. He was then beheaded. Plod arrived, the two headcases invited them to speed them on their way to sex in Heaven, and the cops shot them – but not dead. The killers are now in hospital. That’s it.

“It has all the hallmarks of a terrorist incident,” said the Prime Minister. “We have had a meeting of Cobra and we will have another one tomorrow,” said the Home Secretary.

So called ‘breaking news’ is at its most silly when nobody knows what’s going on, and people who obviously have no idea what’s going on are asked by concerned-looking news anchors if they know what’s going on, only to answer that no, they do not know what’s going on. Like this or not, it is funny to hear this idiotic series of exchanges taking place. We have far too much news in the world today, and far too little analysis or critique. I watched forty minutes of the coverage, open-mouthed at the blindingly obvious and knee-jerk muddle of responses offered to stupid hack questions. Then I went away to shake my head, and write this.

Less will always be more. 24/7 news disobeys this golden rule. It is yet another curse that comes as part of the 21st century’s territory.

Earlier at The Slog: No, perhaps Carney and Meyer aren’t mad after all