On the footnote. GSS data show that trust in media and congress has fallen decade after decade since they started tracking it in 1972. It is so bad that in 2010, the national media and national politicians were MORE distrusted than the BANKS. See my https://policytensor.com/2019/08/17/net-confidence-in-national-institutions/. The general takeaway is that the collapse of trust in national institutions suggests a break-down in elite-mass relations.
The problem of media contempt for their audience is part of the general contempt of US elites for the masses. This contempt shows up everywhere — from the evidence-free assumption, uniform in the professional class, that the white working class is especially racist, to general disdain for 'flyover country'. Working class people do not fail to notice the contempt with which they are held. I think David Brooks got it quite right when he put the following words into the mouth of his imagined 'Flyover Man':
«We can’t have productive conversations if every time I open my mouth you call me a bigot. You may not realize this, but you have Trump supporters around you all the time. It’s just that we’ve learned to keep our mouths shut in your presence. The crushing climate of blue cultural privilege is too strangulating.» https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/03/opinion/trump-voters.html
On the footnote. GSS data show that trust in media and congress has fallen decade after decade since they started tracking it in 1972. It is so bad that in 2010, the national media and national politicians were MORE distrusted than the BANKS. See my https://policytensor.com/2019/08/17/net-confidence-in-national-institutions/. The general takeaway is that the collapse of trust in national institutions suggests a break-down in elite-mass relations.
The problem of media contempt for their audience is part of the general contempt of US elites for the masses. This contempt shows up everywhere — from the evidence-free assumption, uniform in the professional class, that the white working class is especially racist, to general disdain for 'flyover country'. Working class people do not fail to notice the contempt with which they are held. I think David Brooks got it quite right when he put the following words into the mouth of his imagined 'Flyover Man':
«We can’t have productive conversations if every time I open my mouth you call me a bigot. You may not realize this, but you have Trump supporters around you all the time. It’s just that we’ve learned to keep our mouths shut in your presence. The crushing climate of blue cultural privilege is too strangulating.» https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/03/opinion/trump-voters.html