There has been a lot of attention in the past couple of days to the statistical disconnect between what is of importance to the media versus what is important to the public.
Not surprisingly, the media is all Russia, Russia, Russia. The public not so much.
Jon Gabriel at Ricochet originated the analysis, though many outlets ran with it, What Americans Care About vs. What the Media Cares About:
Bloomberg released a poll Monday in which they gauged Americans’ mood six months into the new presidency. While Trump didn’t fare too well, Americans are quite optimistic about the economy in general and their personal financial health. As part of the study, Bloomberg asked respondents what they think is the top issue facing the country. Here are the results….Not surprisingly, health care tops the list of concerns, followed by jobs and security issues. These findings are pretty typical, though the collapse of Obamacare and the GOP bills to fix it have caused health care to surge higher than usual. But look toward the center of the list. Russia, the issue that has dominated press coverage since the November election, scores a paltry 6 percent on Americans’ top concerns.This lack of interest reminded me of a June 27 Media Research Center survey in which they calculated the amount of network news coverage of major issues. The results were radically different than the Bloomberg chart above ….Despite the American people caring far more about health care than any other issue, the media has swamped the airwaves with Trump/Russia conspiracies to the detriment of nearly everything else.The difference between the people and the press was so jarring, I created a chart comparing the two studies. Granted, these studies were conducted by two different organizations using very different methods, but the juxtaposition was remarkable.
Jon then compiled the stats in a chart:
This analysis came to my mind when I had a conversation today that anecdotally supports how out of touch the media is.
The conversation was with someone I’ve known for almost 20 years. He’s a lifelong Rhode Islander and Democrat who has expressed strong hostility to me toward Trump in the past. We speak every couple of months, and I’ve never heard him say a good word about Trump.
The political part of the conversation started by him asking me how the blog was going, and how we must be busy with all the Trump stuff. I was non-committal, something along the lines of “sure, things are always busy.” I fully expected a truck load of anti-Trump stuff to be dumped on me next. But that didn’t happen.
He then volunteered how frustrated he was with the media, and how they “won’t let Trump do his job.” He said he still doesn’t like Trump, but was very angry at the media particularly the Russia coverage. He said (paraphrasing), give me a break with that meeting, if someone offered any campaign dirt on their opponent, of course they’d take it. The conversation continued for several minutes along the same lines, but he kept coming back to Trump not being permitted to “do his job.”
It’s just an anecdote. But it’s meaningful to me because this friend was the last person I would have expected to have such a reaction to media coverage of Trump.
Between the statistical disconnect between media coverage and what matters to people, and this anecdote, I think 2018 may not be the Democrat romp many people are predicting. The media is so obsessed, and Democrats are so much a part of that obsession, they may be overplaying their hand. If nothing else, their voters may stay home in 2018 out of disgust.
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