9 Comments

Perceptive and convicting post. Thank you.

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Of course the average Americans are losing faith in journalism - they see that these AMERICAN journalists don't give a **** about their fellow Americans who live in the wrong part of the country.

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Spot on. We’ll only hear from the MSM if a celeb gets a little water in the basement of their vacation home in a bougie mountain resort. The MSM might produce a small piece with content grabbed from social media, but no boots-on-the-ground reporting and no mention of the devastation in the small towns and communities that were totally swept away.

No one cares about Appalachia except Appalachians.

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Now, some will try NYTs worked, yesterday, with a local (who used to work in DC and NYC) who knows his stuff. But the key is not KNOWING anyone outside of Asheville. It takes time to catch up. The question is whether EDITORS want to ….

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Answer to your question: Yes

Elaboration: Grew up in Montana and WELL familiar with how big of a blizzard, or wildfire or anything else that will go completely unreported by national news. When they do report it they get most everything wrong. It's far away, no one lives there and unless Yellowstone is "on Fire" it's not worth reporting.

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What if Ted Turner’s ranch burned? Or some other star’s?

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Yes. Eventually a few things rise to the level of making national news. The stars make news... if they want to. Mostly they work to keep out of the news in Montana. But to your question, yes, if Ted Turner's ranch (which is incredible, amazing, and huge) burned it would probably make news. Montana does make news for wildfires, but mainly when they are extremely large and often as an addendum to fire stories in CA and "the west" generally.

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Change is possible, or should be. But what can be done to change the deep seated bias that saturates American news media? Maybe (wild guess here) a realization that people don’t trust or believe the news would make a difference. But that is happening now and it doesn’t seem to be making much obvious impact.

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Location, location …

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