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WaPo Seeks Foreign Correspondent To Cover Texas, “a part of the country that is governed largely by one political party”

WaPo Seeks Foreign Correspondent To Cover Texas, “a part of the country that is governed largely by one political party”

“to document life in red state America and develop a new beat mapping the culture, public policies and politics in a region shaped by conservative ideology”

The most influential mainstream media is close to ignorant of anything that happens outside their liberal bubble, and when they do venture out into hostile red territory, it’s with a mixture bewilderment and wonder, something I’ve referred to as “going on Safari.”

In April 2009, I wrote about the phenomenon, Looking At Tea Parties Through Binoculars, Like On Safari (emphasis added):

I attended the Tea Party in Corning, NY, yesterday. There was a good crowd in this relatively small town in western upstate NY (several hours from NY City), several hundred in total. Corning is home to Corning glass and Steuben glass. The entire region has been hit hard by the exodus of jobs to less tax intensive parts of the U.S. and abroad.

I don’t remember which speaker said it, but one of them described how politicians from New York City come up to the region so that they can say they have visited the countryside, and stare at the inhabitants as if through binoculars, like on safari.

And that description was a metaphor for what is motivating the Tea Parties and fueling the outrage. Taxes are the issue, but the problem is much deeper. There is a complete disconnect between the politicians who raise taxes to benefit people who do not pay taxes, and the people who pay taxes.

And a complete lack of respect, epitomized by the derisive coverage of the Tea Parties by the mainstream media, and the phony campaign staged by Media Matters to dismiss the Tea Parties as a creature of Fox News. The truth is that the mainstream media and liberal elites don’t even try to hide their disdain for most of the people in America. And people understand that better than you think.

I followed up on the theme in January 2017, NY Times goes on safari to Texas, struggles to understand natives’ love for their “trucks”:

I remember traveling to Texas when I was in private practice, meeting a lawyer who was investigating a possible investment fraud case who wanted me to get involved.

I’m pretty sure it was in San Antonio.

What I remember most about the trip was the lawyer’s “truck,” or as we say in more refined circles, pickup truck. It was yuge. I don’t recall the specifications on it, but I’m guessing it had as many cylinders as could be had, had a full backseat with its own doors, and was yuge (but I repeat myself). Pretty sure I needed a ladder to get into the vehicle, though my memory might be a little hazy on that part.

The other things I remember is that while we were driving, it began to hail. Not hail like we have in the Northeast. Hail the size of f-ing golf balls. He quickly headed for a parking area under an apartment building, and we waited it out….

The NY Times went on safari to Texas, and it has an article about a peculiar love of the natives for trucks, Rodeo Offers a 90-M.P.H. Glimpse of Texans’ Truck Mania….

Politico once went on safari, in February 2020, and didn’t like what it found, Politico goes on safari to Trump rally, finds joy and celebration

We’ve all seen how the mainstream media lives in NY and DC bubbles. Regardless of where they came from, they often embody the shock at how people outside the coastal and liberal bubbles live.

They *literally* didn’t know anyone who voted for Trump, so they were shocked that 60 million people did so. On campuses, which are feeding grounds for journo bubbles, there were crying circles on election night 2016.

Media outlets like Politico are determined not to ignore the deplorables in 2020, so they are going on safaris to observe those strange Trump-supporting beings….

It ran an article recently about The unexpected joy at a Trump rally in Iowa…

If you have to ask, you’ll never understand  Tea Party events were just as joyous, though portrayed in the media as a national security threat. You had to be there.

If you find the joy “unexpected,” you are part of the problem.

Now The Washington Post wants to go on safari, to Texas, that strange whole other country. WaPo is advertising:

Job posting: The Washington Post is looking for an enterprising reporter based in Texas to document life in red state America and develop a new beat mapping the culture, public policies and politics in a region shaped by conservative ideology.

Here’s part of the Job Description (with my explainers in brackets):

The Washington Post is looking for an enterprising reporter [someone who can exaggerate and mislead] based in Texas to document life in red state America [the smelly part of America] and develop a new beat [gain alot of Twitter followers and get a blue check mark] mapping the culture, public policies and politics in a region shaped by conservative ideology [The Handmaid’s Tale].

The ideal candidate is a seasoned journalist who will unearth revelatory stories [look at the freaks] about a part of the country that is governed largely by one political party [no, not California, New York, Illinois, or other blue states, the icky red ones]. We want a reporter who is a graceful writer [lol] and can deliver both intimate personal stories [doxx ’em] and high-elevation pieces that illuminate the forces driving political polarization. This reporter must have a quick metabolism [in time for the next election cycle to help Beto] and the ability to recognize news developments that shed light on the currents reshaping American culture.

We are seeking someone who is enthusiastic about working cooperatively with colleagues who specialize in visual journalism, graphics and data reporting to elevate their coverage. As a member of the America team, this reporter would also be called upon to help cover major breaking news, such as weather-related disasters or mass-casualty events.

Short version: WaPo wants a seasoned journalist who can take a hatchet to people WaPo hates (most of Texas and red states), to mock them, and to do what was done to the Tea Party and Trump supporters, find some outlier and taint the entire state and movement with that person.

WaPo will get what it wants, it has sounded all the dog whistles in its job announcement.

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Comments

Bring it on
Texas is a state of mind, I should know, I’ve lived here over 40 years…

Right in the heart of Texas

    Eagle1 in reply to gonzotx. | April 12, 2022 at 10:54 pm

    Still a Texan, but living in temporary exile. Texas is at heart a responsibility state with a long history of not wanting the government to intrude into your life, and an undying belief that no man’s property is safe while the legislature is in session.

      Paul in reply to Eagle1. | April 13, 2022 at 8:21 am

      I absolutely love the fact that our legislature only comes into session every other year. That tells you a LOT about how Texans view their government. We also have a Sunset Commission.

    RickTheBear in reply to gonzotx. | April 14, 2022 at 8:51 pm

    @gonzotx: [clap], [clap], [clap], [clap]] 😉

I’m not holding my breath for the WaPo to advertise for a correspondent to come to Western Oregon and “document life in blue state America [the part of America that smells like patchouli oil and individually curated coffee servings] and develop a new beat … mapping the culture, public policies and politics in a region not only shaped but dominated by progressive ideology.

WaPo is seeking a correspondent to cover Texas. How laughable is that? Texas is so big that the entire world population of 7.9 billion could fit within its borders, assuming the population density of New York City of 27,000 per square mile.

Texas is so big that 15 of the smallest states could fit within its borders simultaneously including Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, Maine, South Carolina, West Virginia, Maryland, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Hawaii, Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island.

Maybe 15 or 20 WaPo correspondents might cover half of Texas, but I doubt it.

    alaskabob in reply to Peabody. | April 12, 2022 at 10:47 pm

    And then there is Alaska……but Texas will do… in a pinch. The upside is that a WaPo correspondent might “go missing” in Alaska and that would be a pity.

    The major question is how someone so selected could communicate with “people” that cherish a “non-living” Constitution? Could they grasp that the fight for Texas independence wasn’t just a “whitey” thing? Could they free themselves from hidebound stereotypes….blend in with the natives and immerse themselves in the culture? I guess they would demand hazard pay. As Paul notes…. they will retreat to Austin for deprogramming every weekend.

      henrybowman in reply to alaskabob. | April 12, 2022 at 11:11 pm

      You remind me of the time 20+ years ago that a candidate paid me to design a campaign sign for him. One of the specs was to insult the Arizona Republic as out of touch with actual Arizonans (the naked truth). I cobbled together a logo featuring the New Yorker’s Eustace Tilley in a cowboy hat.

      Voyager in reply to alaskabob. | April 13, 2022 at 11:28 am

      Thing about Alaska, they probably could go on safari there, and come back with articles with titles like “And then a Bear ate our plane…”

      You know people will read it. Heck I read it, and it was awesome.

      Actually, I wonder if there isn’t a niche for gonzo journalism about red States that’s specifically spoofing the WaPo safari style?

    ahad haamoratsim in reply to Peabody. | April 13, 2022 at 5:58 am

    I wish I could remember the name of the judge or the name of the decision, on a motion seeking change of venue. The judge quoted what he claimed was an old folk saying “the sun has rose, the sun has set, and we is still in Texas yet. “

    SamlAdams in reply to Peabody. | April 13, 2022 at 8:09 am

    I remember, as a child entering TX on I-10 from LA and the first westbound “lollipop” on the interstate reading “810”. That’s always stuck. Recently used that in a dinner conversation with one of my British colleagues in NYC to explain how “big” the US is.

    Insufficiently Sensitive in reply to Peabody. | April 13, 2022 at 10:34 am

    WaPo is seeking a correspondent to cover Texas. How laughable is that?

    Makes sense. One correspondent is sufficient to cover the little enclaves of knowitall ‘progressives’ in Texas, whose words WaPo intends to amplify as the voice of all Texans.

The Dim party is very strong in Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and the Valley.

    Oregon Mike in reply to Paul. | April 12, 2022 at 11:06 pm

    Recent events show the Valley is turning red. See, e.g., the new mayor of McAllen (I believe). It’s ground zero for border crossings, and the residents are unhappy.

      You are correct, and that is very exciting news indeed. A lot of Latinos are waking up to the fact that the left would like nothing more than to enslave them to government dependency just like they did the Blacks.

JackinSilverSpring | April 12, 2022 at 10:38 pm

Bezo’s Compost, Pravda on the Potomac, doing what it does best: being the place where the truth goes to die in darkness.

If they really want to visit a foreign country controlled by one party they should send someone to California. That place is run worse than most third world countries.

“What I remember most about the trip was the lawyer’s “truck,” or as we say in more refined circles, pickup truck. It was yuge. I don’t recall the specifications on it, but I’m guessing it had as many cylinders as could be had, had a full backseat with its own doors, and was yuge (but I repeat myself). Pretty sure I needed a ladder to get into the vehicle, though my memory might be a little hazy on that part.”

Yeah, it seems like an affectation… until you do the actual capacity numbers and see what a workingman needs to pull a stock or horse trailer, or a retired gentleman needs to pull a medium-size travel trailer, not to mention a 5th wheel trailer, without violating load regs and voiding his insurance.

The minimum truck for these very common endeavors falls in the 250/2500 class, and that’s where you enter the “high climb in” and the “full backseat row” territory. If you want to pull a trailer that you won’t go batty actually living in for a couple months straight, you’ll be needing 3’s or 4’s.

Fun fact: The smaller trucks, with “half-size” back rows, come with “suicide doors” (they hinge at the back) that open only when the main door is also open. Park in the Safeway lot between two other vehicles, then get your groceries from the cart into the back seat. You can open the door, or get your grocery cart into the right position, but you can’t do both.

    You left out boat.

    Massinsanity in reply to henrybowman. | April 13, 2022 at 8:52 am

    Years ago I used to do a lot of business in Oklahoma and one day at lunch the customers I was with were all excited because one of them had gotten a new pickup and it was a “dualie.” I had never heard that term before and asked for an explanation. This drew a lot of laughs from the locals. A dualie is a pickup with 4 wheels in the back (6 over all). That’s a big ass truck and a major status symbol in Oklahoma apparently.

      The Gentle Grizzly in reply to Massinsanity. | April 14, 2022 at 5:39 am

      “ That’s a big ass truck and a major status symbol in Oklahoma apparently.”

      Now and then, one is bought for actual heavy work and not… “compensation”.

New York subway shooter (and bad gun maintainer)’s rant on “white Republicans”.

Obama is personally responsible for the likes of these lunatics:

https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/mass-casualty-event-in-brooklyn-developing/

An even shorter version. “Go check out the rubes and find out why them ign’t arseholes ain’t settlin’ down and respectin’ their betters.”

Not being a Texan I could be wrong on this but I think Texas is doubly confusing and irritating to Our Benevolent Betters because it is both Southern and Western. Which to them combines dogged racism with wild frontier lawlessness. In their minds this can only mean GUNS. GUNS. GUNS. Everywhere! Even dropped off on your front porch without a by or leave. Sneaky things, guns.

Imagine the poor NYT reporter dodging a giant pick up truck only to find himself skidding across an oil slick right into a herd of stampeding longhorn cattle. Their violent rumblings have set off the sensitive triggers of the thousand handguns carried in a nearby crowd. Bullets go every which a way. One ricochets a piece of cow dung into our heroe’s eye. He stumbles into the path of a Dr. Pepper truck. The driver is listening to Jerry Jeff Walker at full volume and is unable to avoid the reporter. Splat! Down he goes. Wondering to the last “What the hell is chicken fried steak?”

Colonel Travis | April 13, 2022 at 1:09 am

I’m laughing at this story. OMG how can people be this stupid about their own country? Rhetorical question.

The left is so out of touch it is ridiculous. We know them better than they know us. It’s funny because they think it’s the opposite. I have been on both sides of the political fence. I know which side is full of crap. They are the most un-curious, un-caring, un-knowledgeable gaggle of twits on the earth. This reporter will do nothing to change that.

Moments like this make me remember how happy I was to learn the “Newseum” was bankrupt and going out of business.

Comanche Voter | April 13, 2022 at 1:38 am

If the NYT pulls it’s head out of the lower end of its editorial alimentary canal I give you a real one party state–California. Dims all the way down.
There are six executive officers elected in state wide elections. Been exclusively Dim since the days of Pete Wilson. Dims have super majorities in both houses of the legislature and its been that way for quite some time. It’s not so much a kleptocracy–more of a kakistocracy. Take a look at Mad Maxine Waters, Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Barbara Lee, Ro Khanna–we ship our legislative granola–fruits, nuts and flakes to Washington D.C.–but leave some in the bowl for Sacramento.

Meanwhile the Penn Biden Center has been looking for a “Communications Manager” for over 30 days now, that’s how popular this president is!

https://www.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=7d8cfebd146d47e6&from=native

Great more f— ing Assholes …* SIGH *… its not like we don’t have enough of them now …idiots who think cow comes in a 2 pound pack instead of on 4 feet and 911 is just minutes away …. Well as long as they stay in Austin or Dallas

“find some outlier and taint the entire state and movement with that person” isn’t that the basis of most conservative reporting and the culture wars.

    JohnSmith100 in reply to Fatkins. | April 13, 2022 at 8:17 am

    People like you started culture war, people like us are going to bring it to a decisive end, then you can spend the rest of your life moaning about how it turned out. The more you thrash around, the more people are defecting, abandoning Dems. Upcoming elections will see Dems slaughtered. They have committed political suicide.

      scooterjay in reply to JohnSmith100. | April 13, 2022 at 9:39 am

      Notice the silence in the reply?
      I’d like to see the ip address. I have ideas it is been here before in a form other than his current user name.

    What color is the sky on the planet where you live?

    Peabody in reply to Fatkins. | April 13, 2022 at 9:01 am

    What the hell are you doing wasting time here? WaPo hired you to cover Texas!

    CommoChief in reply to Fatkins. | April 13, 2022 at 9:51 am

    No, what usually happens is that the left proposes some weirdo idea and there is a fringe on the left even more weird that the right correctly identifies as the actual goal. The left and media call the right names such as ‘intolerant’ and state they are engaged in a ‘conspiracy theory’. A couple years later the formerly fringe leftist idea that the right warned about comes to fruition using the the milder wired idea as the precedent to accept it as well.

    Milhouse in reply to Fatkins. | April 13, 2022 at 7:19 pm

    No, it isn’t.

Marie in Vermont | April 13, 2022 at 7:57 am

Well, maybe they could send a correspondent up here to Vermont to explain to all of us normal rural people what the heck is going on in the minds of the unhinged lefties in Burlington, Montpelier, and Middlebury; our ‘cities’ (such as they are) and the countryside are two entirely separate worlds. There are an awful lot of deplorables around here, although you wouldn’t know it listening to the media.

Why do’t we move to a more amenable place? Moving a farm is tough and we’re much happier living somewhere that isn’t unbearably hot and/or humid in the summer and a place that almost never gets hurricanes or tornados. Besides, we non-woke Vermonters are the nicest people.

    JohnSmith100 in reply to Marie in Vermont. | April 13, 2022 at 8:25 am

    I am liquidating over a hundred-acre farm in Michigan right now. We have too much riff raff, and the place is being overrun by Muslims. Moving and starting over is a staggering task.

      nordic_prince in reply to JohnSmith100. | April 13, 2022 at 9:06 am

      Getting rid of Dearbornistan would go a long way.

      Marie in Vermont in reply to JohnSmith100. | April 14, 2022 at 4:21 pm

      So sorry to hear that! Much luck and safety in relocating somewhere better. My husband and I couldn’t, the Mr. has an autoimmune disorder thanks to an anesthesia screw-up during surgery so walking is more demanding than it used to be. We’ll just have to stay here with our lovely neighbors (not snark, they really are) and be the sensible conservatives amidst the craziness.

    CommoChief in reply to Marie in Vermont. | April 13, 2022 at 10:48 am

    So…live free or die?

      CommoChief in reply to CommoChief. | April 13, 2022 at 10:59 am

      Or will it be freedom and unity? I imagine that most of the influx of people have a different idea of what constitutes freedom and unity than those born and raised there. Seriously look at the Southeast. Low or no income tax, lower property taxes and practically none for agricultural land. Friendly people who will welcome those with traditional values.

      Yes there are hurricanes but inland that means strong wind and rain not what hits the coastal areas. Tornados occur but build a brick house and a storm shelter is an option. Heat and humidity yes indeed, lots of both, though that makes for excellent growing conditions and we have AC to mitigate that. Heck a good porch on the north side with a fan and some shade trees works fine for all but July and August.

    “..living somewhere that isn’t unbearably hot and/or humid in the summer and a place that almost never gets hurricanes or tornados.” I’ll give our Chamber of Commerce a heads up to pull the welcome packet they had all set to go out to you. The best section is “Our friend the insect.” It highlights the delights Florida holds for the budding etymologist.

      healthguyfsu in reply to JRaeL. | April 13, 2022 at 5:46 pm

      I think you meant entomologist.

      Etymology is the study of word origins. As an anatomist (and physiologist), any of us that are half decent are etymologists on the side. The entomologists are down the hall.

      Marie in Vermont in reply to JRaeL. | April 14, 2022 at 4:16 pm

      Ha! I’ve got some cousins that live in Florida, but they’re PMC types who hide in air conditioning all summer. Can’t do that with livestock.

      I hear that the bugs are big as dinner plates in Florida and that you’ve gotta run fast to keep ahead of the alligators. I think I’ll stick with the coyotes, the bears, and the moose up here, although black fly season every spring is pretty annoying. 🙂

Sam Donaldson, Dan Rather, and Scott Pelley are from Texas. Not many people in Texas trust their reporting. Johnson City, home of a former president, voted 73% for Trump in 2020. Auston looks more like Los Angeles and Beto O’Rourke (the Clown Prince of Texas Democrats) is a cosmic joke with all the money in the world to waste.

The whole state desperately needs rain, but if we gather together in our churches and public places to pray for rain—some jerk from a more enlightened state (and working for the Washington Post) will ask Margaret Atwood for a comment.

I have lived in Texas before (but now in the Free State of Florida) and I can say that I was proud to live there when I did. The last years I was there, a decade ago, I did not recognize the place. Of course, I really wasn’t in Texas, but in the People’s Republic of Austin, which is how most conservative Texans refer to their capital now.

    JRaeL in reply to oldvet50. | April 13, 2022 at 3:41 pm

    Please forgive me for my boldness in asking, What part of Florida are you in? I will not take it amiss if you decline to answer.

freespeechfanatic | April 13, 2022 at 9:18 am

The absence of self-awareness among the elite is stupefying.

Steven Brizel | April 13, 2022 at 10:17 am

I am a conservative New Yorker and I admire the grit and self reliance of Texans despite the presence and attempts of a huge Democratic machine that has attempted to turn the state blue and in its big cities. The legacy media, with its biases ,always has viewed those of us who live with an emphasis on normal family lives and moral values as worthy of a sociological study and curiosity at best or alternatively, as “deplorables” or addicted to guns and religion in more unguarded moments.

Insufficiently Sensitive | April 13, 2022 at 10:30 am

Job posting: The Washington Post is looking for an enterprising reporter based in Texas to document life in red state America and develop a new beat mapping the culture

‘Enterprising’ – one of US scouting the ‘others’
‘document’ – confirming or adding to OUR prejudices
‘red state’ – non- or anti-progressive
‘new beat’ – any small enclave that thinks like US, not THEM

Hint to WaPo – NPR is well-practiced at locating all of the above. You can tell when the ‘natives’ they interview speak just like Ivy League professors.

People from my area around NYC often think they know how the country thinks: They think they’re centrists. When they actually meet people who aren’t leftists, it’s a “Gorillas in the Mist” moment. Now the Washington Post wants their own Dian Fossey to go to Texas.

How [biased] is it that the nation’s 2nd largest print media publication does not currently have a resident reporter in the entire State of Texas? The 2nd most populous State, the 2nd largest State, the migratory destination from NY and CA for the past decade – and WaPo has not so far seen fit to inquire into what might be going on down there.

Self-admittedly siloed; announcing to the world that they live in a wholly clueless bubble – that’s the pride of Democracy dies in darkness?

Texas is so big we could make lots of smaller red states out of it. What do you think of that Texans?

stevewhitemd | April 13, 2022 at 1:24 pm

Reminds me of the book, “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” That book, written by a liberal, complained that the people of Kansas frequently voted for policies that were “not in their best interests”, according to the writer. What it really showed was that the writer wasn’t at all in touch with what really mattered to the people of that state.

This is going to be more of the same.

surfcitylawyer | April 13, 2022 at 2:20 pm

WaPo people probably missed that little old lady putting her pistol back in her purse after someone else shot the guy who shot up their church service.
I live in Orange County, California, which, compared to the rest of California, seems to be a piece of the midwest transplanted to the coast. Unfortunately, we are moving from red toward blue.

On the the left and on the right….both extremist nut cases. While they scream at each other, the center holds true and steady

PhiladaMaineiac | April 14, 2022 at 4:42 pm

I can help them with their advertisement: “WaPo wants to hire Claas Relotius.”

Wow, what a coincidence … Isn’t WaPo also controlled by one political party?