Do you ever turn on your favorite cable news channel and sit for an hour or so before you actually hear about an issue that really matters to you?
You're not the only one.
Cable and broadcast newsrooms are more and more defined by the interests and agendas of the producers, reporters, and anchors who work there rather than reflecting the interests and agendas of the very viewers they're trying to reach. (Assuming they're actually trying to reach any viewers.)
Given that these newsrooms are filled with graduates of East Coast universities or specialized journalism schools, and given that these newsrooms are located in either Manhattan or Washington, DC, the topics selected by these media gatekeepers continue to display a narrow and myopic vision of what these few decision-makers view as essential and news-worthy.
A new poll from Rassmussen bears this out with stark evidence.
New: Top Voter Midterm Issues vs Top Media Midterm Issues
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) July 25, 2022
Today we added - Energy Policy.
What a disconnect.
Readers ask how we put this list together. It's simple - https://t.co/bRVVYKGaX5 pic.twitter.com/uc91b5rfoq
Looking at the top five issues that matter most to voters versus the top five issues reported by the media, you can see the disconnect between the denizens of the media bubble and the viewers they're supposed to be accommodating.
Voters' top five issues are pretty clear and consistent with what you're probably most focused on right now.
Gas prices, inflation, the economy, energy policy, and violent crime.
Meanwhile, Anderson Cooper and George Stephanopoulos are more concerned about climate change, Ukraine, January 6, Covid, and LGBTQ issues.
It tells quite a story, doesn't it?
Look at these issues again and you'll notice an obvious pattern. The issues that matter most to voters also happen to be the issues that either work very favorably for Republicans running for office this November or, at the very least, are detrimental to Joe Biden and the Democrats.
It would be literally impossible for a news outlet to run a legitimate story on gas prices or energy policy without drawing some attention to how we got here. Not only would that story harm Democrats, but it would also undermine the constant drumbeat on behalf of new fossil fuel policies, which run exactly counter to the topic that happens to be the number one issue for members of the media: climate change.
Further, how exactly would a news organization cover the rising fears over violent crime without pointing out that law enforcement has been undermined by calls for "defunding the police" and by BLM protesters, which would again damage the favored political party of those very reporters and producers delivering the news?
So... they just ignore these issues. They aren't reporting the news to a public eager for information about the topics they care most about, they are delivering messages to their dwindling audience, hoping to shape their opinions and affect their behaviors.
That's something very different than journalism.
This week should serve as a telling moment of truth for these corporate legacy media entities as the economic report on the second quarter GDP is revealed. If, as anticipated, the report reflects a second consecutive quarter of economic contraction, what every American knows instinctively will be confirmed: We are in a recession.
However, a proclamation of recession this close to an already challenging midterm election day for the Democrats could turn this November into a historic bloodbath.
To help push back on the inevitable, the Biden Administration floated the notion that two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the economy doesn't necessarily mean a recession, even though it has literally meant exactly that for the past 50 or 60 years of American history.
Question: Out of the past 10 times the U.S. economy has experienced two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, how many times was a recession officially declared?
— Michael R. Strain (@MichaelRStrain) July 25, 2022
Answer: 10. pic.twitter.com/yrR1kwlC4r
So... will CNN or ABC News take the bait? Will they have "experts" on after this Thursday's report to "explain" to their viewers that this isn't really a recession because... well... reasons?
If so, they'll be exposed as the gaslighting hacks we all know they are. If not... if this is a bridge too far and they can't carry Biden's water on this big of a lie, it won't mean they've regained any level of integrity and ethics, it will merely mean that they're tired of ceding any further ground to those of us in the "conservative media" who are doing quite well reporting on, analyzing and discussing the issues that really matter to you, the reader and voter.
Just look again at that Rasmussen poll and check their top issues against the headlines here at Townhall. See the pattern? It isn't that hard.
Larry O'Connor hosts America's Morning Show, "O'Connor and Company" on WMAL in Washington, DC, every weekday morning, as well as the upcoming "O'Connor Tonight" on Salem News Channel. His growing Locals community is available to the public and is fast becoming a place where everyone can discuss all the things you're not supposed to talk about in polite company.