Daily Inspiration Quote by Robin Day

Function first: it reads like a shrug, but it’s really a manifesto in plain clothes. Robin Day, a journalist best known for forensic interviewing on British television, isn’t talking about gadgets so much as standards. In a media culture that loves ornament - the theatrical set, the clever format, the personality-driven performance - Day’s line cuts down to a basic test: does it do the job?

The repetition of "things" is doing quiet work. It flattens hierarchies and mystique. Not "institutions" or "democracy" or "the press" - just things. That demotion is the point: journalism shouldn’t be treated like priestcraft. It’s a tool, and tools are judged by outcomes, not by aura. His phrasing also carries a faint impatience, the tone of someone who has watched too many systems protect themselves by redefining success. If the interview format becomes an end in itself, if the broadcaster’s neutrality becomes performance, if the newsroom’s rituals matter more than what audiences actually learn, the machine is still whirring but it isn’t functioning.

Context matters: Day came up in an era when TV news was becoming a national civic stage, with the BBC and later ITV selling authority as much as information. "Work well" is an argument against both state-minded paternalism and empty populism: credibility is earned by clarity, pressure-testing, and usable truth. The subtext is almost moral: aesthetics, prestige, even sincerity are secondary. If it doesn’t function, it’s not journalism - it’s decoration with a microphone.