Republican voters can see many if not all of the same economic ills in society that Democrat voters do. In some cases they can even agree on the cause. I'm not going to stand next to how right-wing media (and its eager audience) may characterize "main stream media". But I do think the window of representation across how americans see and characterize ourselves through newsrooms in general has narrowed too far (in its seemingly-permanently partisan polarization) to sustain a rational democracy. Social media and the internet have provided the means to see this clearer than ever, in both great and terrible ways. A lot of contradictions in society about values we have and language we use as a people will have to resolve now.
All I can say is I hope we see a real economic policy response from democrats in congress, and fast. They seem to be fishing around for ideas in all the wrong pockets (foreign interests, domestic private interests, namely not the daily interests of the majority of their constituents).... but even rhetorically, it would be a start.
Yea but there's also not much point in critiquing the government here. What we ever been able to do about it except riot? We can endlessly discuss the failures of government and as it stands I don't think we will never see these failures distinguish candidates in the voting booth. Which is confusing, because you'd think the democrats would have wanted to win this time.
Indeed. The editorial boards of these newsrooms are often staffed with people who attended the same schools and classes as those running the country. The social circles of the two worlds are extremely closely linked.
Of course, this means that the reporting isn't very good at addressing its blind spots–i.e., most of the news in the country, let alone the world, that isn't relevant to the ivy league coastal elites. And I say this as a member of that same class. Most of the political perspectives in my life are completely unrepresented in the opinion columns, which generally tend to pander upwards rather than downwards.
I don't tend to put much weight in freedom of the press so long as that press is floating on the cream of society and asking the government permission to report on what they're doing.