The MSM Vows To Cover Trump Supporters One Diner At A Time

Let's play a little game of "If I Were A News Editor."

Imagine a man unexpectedly wins the presidency. Nearly every example of political hackery from strategist to pundit had predicted it could never happen. Your regular sources - all stuffed with enough conventional wisdom to choke a lobbyist - all focused on the upcoming administration of the person who didn't win. Even worse, when the results come in, it's clear that there is a political rumbling that you missed. You didn't have enough reporters in place between the coasts and enough political expertise from the areas that made this unexpected victory possible.

Do you:

A) Hire reporters who live in these areas and expand your sources to include pundits, strategists and political experts familiar with this under-covered block of voters?

Or do you:

B) Send a couple of your reporters into the hinterlands to interview voters in diners and other places that will seem somewhat exotic to your regular base of readers?

If you chose b, the you too can be the managing editor of a big-time news organization. 

The past week or so has brought a string of pieces written by reporters who have traveled into the hinterlands to talk to supporters of Donald Trump. And they have found - SURPRISE! - most of the people who voted for him less than three months ago still support him.

Aside from the clueless and arrogant premise of the pieces, the results are to be expected by anyone who has ever had the slightest experience with human nature. A reporter working for a major news organization shows up in small-town America and starts asking voters if they're happy with their choice for President. What do you think they'll say? "Oh, now that I think about, I suppose I really was wrong, wasn't I?" It's like commissioning a piece about marriage and building it around interviews that ask people if they are sorry they decided to tie the knot.

To get a honest reaction, you need reporters who are embedded in that area. Reporters who seem more like the voters they're writing about. Rather than real-life examples of that vaguely elitist smugness that rural America despises. You need reporters who can write about Trump voters in a nuanced way. Ones who understand that pieces with the underlying premise of "Stupid Trump voters still stupid" might make the political establishment feel better. But they aren't very accurate or informative.

I usually spend a couple of mornings a week working from the lobby of my local McDonald's and I see the same group of old guys meeting to have coffee. They are primarily Trump voters and some are still rabid supporters. But it's interesting to hear the wide range of reactions to his presidency to far. Some have a fair amount of buyer's remorse. But there's also the outlier who recently argued to me that Trump has "done more already than that Ni&@@r did in eight years." Trump supporters ran the gamet from racist to disaffected voters who feel that Washington works for everyone else but them. 

That's a portrait of Trump voters you don't read in the major news outlets. It's nuanced reporting that doesn't come from a day or two or spending time in a small town. It would be ludicrous to have an old white guy write about what it's like to live with racism just by having him talk to a few African-Americans. But for budgetary and cultural reasons, news organizations feel comfortable telling the story of Middle America through the lens of people who don't understand the culture.

I've been a journalist for more than a couple of decades. I've worked at outlets from San Francisco to Birmingham. I believe in journalism and the impact of good reporting. But too often, when I read these ludicrous diner pieces, I feel like a fan of basketball who is forced to watch highlight reels of old Washington Generals games. It's infuriating and a bit embarrassing.

We are so much better than this,

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