Local news deserts do not have much to do with how people vote. Local news outlets did not spend a lot of time on the Presidential race. They are more of the if it bleeds, it leads, sports, weather, along with state and local government business/politics.
I agree that these news deserts did no have much affect on how people voted, it is more correlation.
Another writer today made a post about a very large drop in Hispanic support for Kamila that could account for her loss. But it didn't really speculate why there was such a big drop.
As someone who almost has a Master’s degree in Economics (never finished the dissertation due to family responsibilities), I could write a dissertation on the chart about inflation. Tariffs will cause prices of imported goods (avocados, cars, rare earths, crude oil from Canada, etc., etc.) to rise because the companies that import the goods pay the tariffs, and they will pass the cost of the tariffs on to their customers. Mass deportations are likely to cause prices to rise. There will be wage increases in meat packing, hotels and resorts, agribusiness and farmers, just to name a few, in order to attract workers. And don’t kid yourselves: there aren’t millions of people, either native-born or here legally, who are begging to work in meat packing or poultry processing plants, or who want to clean hotel rooms, or who want to pick tomatoes in California’s Central Valley or apples in Washington state. Then, the lack of labor, especially in agribusiness writ large, and that includes farmers, makes the products scarce because there isn’t labor available to process or harvest the products or produce.
As for the price of eggs, don’t expect it to drop after Trump is sworn in. Bird flu, which decimated poultry flocks, will increase again in the spring as wild birds migrate bringing the virus with them. Maybe the chickens can be injected with bleach. 😏
No need to read any more into the election, President Trump ( general election candidate rated only a 3 on scale 1-10 ) easily beat KH because the JB administration was a very bad one and people wanted and needed change. The margin is irrelevant, what matters is that President Trump has a majority in the House & Senate! Think about 2 or maybe 3 Supreme Court justices appointed in the next 4 years. The legacy will be the Supreme Court and its conservative rulings for the next 20 to 25 years.
It’s likely that Democrats will be in the majority again in the next 25 years and change the make up of the court. Term limits, better ways to deal with corruption other than impeachment. More justices to reflect better a growing US.
Republican Senators refusing to hold accountable US Supreme Court justices because those justices favor their policies breaks the fairness of the system. Just as having a President with convictions and indictments for subverting democracy, subverts democracy. It will lead to conflict. Politics is designed to stop conflict. Politics now creates it.
Oh, I see you e changed your tune as it’s become clear that Trump won the popular vote by the smallest margin in the history of the United States. And he won the Electoral College by 230K votes in the 7 swing states, which is 00.15% of the total number of votes cast.
Just a few weeks ago, you and your MAG cohorts were claiming a “landslide” and a “mandate”. Gee, @dutchmaga, what happened to your bravado?
The smallest popular vote margin in the history of the United States is FAR from being “irrelevant math and details”: it’s an absolute *fact* that, try as you like, CANNOT be denied. Yes, it’s a win: any idiot can see that. However, putting it in perspective is not an “irrelevant…detail”, it’s what’s known as “context”.
You wanna know what a “mandate” is like? Reagan won in a landslide and clearly had a mandate. Of course, he absolutely blew up the national debt and gave massive gifts to the wealthy with his joke of “trickledown economics”, which time has proven to be an absolute failure and a disaster that has hollowed out the middle class for decades. However, that’s just me editorializing: it was indeed a “mandate”. He got 58.8% of the popular vote and 97.6% of the Electoral College!
Nixon won the popular vote by 60.7%
LBJ won by 61.1%
FDR won by 60.8%
Trump didn’t even get a MAJORITY of voters. I’ll say it again: the absolute narrowest margin in the history of the United States, at 1.47%. A win, clearly, but “an unprecedented and powerful mandate”, as Trump said? Yet another lie, but you and your MAGA cohorts just suck up the lies like a sponge.
Dutch, The transformation of the Supreme Court doesn’t get the attention it deserves, both in the recent past and ongoing now. What’s your opinion on why that isn’t talked about very much by either the left or the right?
It’s amazing to me that it is not talked about! In my humble opinion it’s one of the most important decisions a president can make. As a far right conservative I’m delighted with 2 of President Trumps selections from his first term. If he fill the seats of Alito and Thomas he’s gonna need to go very conservative. A Dem seat will be a bonus. As you know, President Trump published a list of names prior to the 2016 election of potential Supreme Court justices he would consider. Not sure why he or KH didn’t do the same this election cycle. Very over looked and important subject!
Sad that fairly large percentage if Americans don’t care about their nation sufficiently to seek out well-rounded information or even really to change the channel, if only for a bit..I suspect that after what they’ll see over the next two years,they’ll be motivated to get better informed before the midterms.
Indeed. And Donald Trump is an expert at capturing the "national" news cycle day after day, week after week. For example, I watch (ed) CNN (slowed down extensively these past months) and there is (was) not one day that goes (went) by that they did not talk about DJT. Again, as long as your name is out there over and over again (good or bad) you get recognition and folks remember that people talk about you all the time so....
Chris, you correctly observed that correlation is not causation you immediately then pivoted to introduce a lot of meaningless information and conjecture as to why it might be a causative factor of the election outcome in those deserts. My primary residence is in a rural community in northwest CT, and I can assure you that the residents are very informed on local( think town meetings) , regional, state and National issues. Much more so than the average NYC ( where my office is) dweller is than perhaps the residents of portions of Manhattan. They value their liberty and the town is if a size where the regional news stations and newspapers and the internet work just fine fir anyone who cares, and the one think the great majority of them agree upon is the the government ( state and national) is too intrusive in their lives. In spite of that , a slight majority of then still vote Democratic, but by a far smaller margin than what has become other counties of what has evolved during my 82 year lifetime from a moderate Republican State to one very left of center. I used to be a local newspaper carrier during my youth, when TV was in its infancy and everyone knew practically everyone in their community and politicians had to earn your trust. Guess what? The world has changed and we don’t get our news any more from the pony express rider or the telegraph either. 🙂🙂
What's missing is a discussion of how those local news outlets retired. While the balkanization of the advertising market was a major factor, so too was consolidation of media pushed by the financial industry, which resulted in unsustainable debt loads for many newspapers, radio stations, and local TV stations. Said debt eviscerated their staffs. The few that escaped consolidation and have limited debt are surviving and, in some cases, thriving. That does not mean that their serviced communities are different, politically, than others of a similar nature. There are several low-debt, well-staffed local media outlets in my area, but the rural counties served are 65% Republican, as they always have been, and the content offered to them frequently reflects that bias.
What if the news deserts (and on first glance I thought you were talking about puddings!) were due to existing sectarianism (Democrats vs Trump Republicans) rather than sectarianism being due to a lack of local news, education and information?
Today, fewer people are likely to buy a newspaper which doesn’t reinforce your already existing extreme views. Bothsidesing, as CNN has tried to do doesn’t work. Both sides hate it. And there’s plenty of free social media you can access which pushes any extreme view that you are looking for along with a community to go with it that fits you like a glove.
To replace the community you actually live in!!!!
I’m not sure even making local newspapers free would make them more successful. Inter state migration based on ideology (moving to Oregon which allows abortion, for example) is only likely to make red counties redder. Blue counties bluer.
1970’s-2000 Northern Ireland is a model here. It was very clear what side of the divide you were on. Nothing was ever going to change that. Least of all local news.
The loss of local newspapers is a tragedy but could be addressed as they are trying to do in Minnesota. The Star Tribune has set up a program to address the loss of rural newspapers in Minnesota by expanding their coverage of the state. It's still a work in progress, but they are trying to do something. The problem is that they just do not have enough resources yet to do the job justice.
Another approach is to utilize the internet and setup digital news sources using Substack or similar online resources. The only issue there is that not all rural areas have reasonable access to the internet.
The problem with both approaches is that the reporters and editors out in the rural areas have found other employment or left the area. As a result, those resources have to be replaced and that will take time.
I agree with the analyses that explain the loss on the fact that Democrats did not discuss what was on the minds of moderate left and independent voters. They pushed topics that appealed to the far left base as though the far left would not have voted for them if they didn't focus on them.
But the absolute nail in the coffin was when Harris couldn't come up with anything she would have changed from the Biden approach. There were ways that she could have answered that question without tossing Biden under the bus but also showed that she was thinking about other options and approaches.
I am still betting that Trump and his cronies will totally screw the pooch in mismanaging the economy as well as rolling out Project 2025 ideas that will have seriously adverse effects on their base. As a result, the 2026 mid-term elections will be very interesting and could have a good chance of handing Congress back to the Democrats.
Oh, come on, all that proves is that Trump carried the rural counties by landslide margins, which is already well known. Besides which -- how many cities are, in reality, “news deserts?” How many people in Philadelphia actually read the Inquirer? People all over the country rely on the national media for coverage of national events such as national elections. Trying to parse out “local impact” would be extremely difficult (unless you live a mile from the border with Mexico).
Take a look at the Fauquier Times, based in Warrenton VA, an hour west of DC but a rural area. A former family- owned paper that was bought by local residents to save it and then turned into a non profit. It covers local zoning issues, quality of life, local government and sports ~~ all information that citizens need and can’t get anywhere else.
C’mon Chris. You know better. Local journalism is importsnt, but it’s important to cover local issues. It seems like a more plausible explanation is that areas that have stagnated economically can’t support local journalism and those same areas tended to support Trump for all the reasons we’ve all been talking about.
Local news deserts do not have much to do with how people vote. Local news outlets did not spend a lot of time on the Presidential race. They are more of the if it bleeds, it leads, sports, weather, along with state and local government business/politics.
I agree that these news deserts did no have much affect on how people voted, it is more correlation.
Another writer today made a post about a very large drop in Hispanic support for Kamila that could account for her loss. But it didn't really speculate why there was such a big drop.
As someone who almost has a Master’s degree in Economics (never finished the dissertation due to family responsibilities), I could write a dissertation on the chart about inflation. Tariffs will cause prices of imported goods (avocados, cars, rare earths, crude oil from Canada, etc., etc.) to rise because the companies that import the goods pay the tariffs, and they will pass the cost of the tariffs on to their customers. Mass deportations are likely to cause prices to rise. There will be wage increases in meat packing, hotels and resorts, agribusiness and farmers, just to name a few, in order to attract workers. And don’t kid yourselves: there aren’t millions of people, either native-born or here legally, who are begging to work in meat packing or poultry processing plants, or who want to clean hotel rooms, or who want to pick tomatoes in California’s Central Valley or apples in Washington state. Then, the lack of labor, especially in agribusiness writ large, and that includes farmers, makes the products scarce because there isn’t labor available to process or harvest the products or produce.
As for the price of eggs, don’t expect it to drop after Trump is sworn in. Bird flu, which decimated poultry flocks, will increase again in the spring as wild birds migrate bringing the virus with them. Maybe the chickens can be injected with bleach. 😏
No need to read any more into the election, President Trump ( general election candidate rated only a 3 on scale 1-10 ) easily beat KH because the JB administration was a very bad one and people wanted and needed change. The margin is irrelevant, what matters is that President Trump has a majority in the House & Senate! Think about 2 or maybe 3 Supreme Court justices appointed in the next 4 years. The legacy will be the Supreme Court and its conservative rulings for the next 20 to 25 years.
It’s likely that Democrats will be in the majority again in the next 25 years and change the make up of the court. Term limits, better ways to deal with corruption other than impeachment. More justices to reflect better a growing US.
Republican Senators refusing to hold accountable US Supreme Court justices because those justices favor their policies breaks the fairness of the system. Just as having a President with convictions and indictments for subverting democracy, subverts democracy. It will lead to conflict. Politics is designed to stop conflict. Politics now creates it.
There’s your problem.
Well, that is a plan…. Best of luck with all that.
Oh, I see you e changed your tune as it’s become clear that Trump won the popular vote by the smallest margin in the history of the United States. And he won the Electoral College by 230K votes in the 7 swing states, which is 00.15% of the total number of votes cast.
Just a few weeks ago, you and your MAG cohorts were claiming a “landslide” and a “mandate”. Gee, @dutchmaga, what happened to your bravado?
Definitely still a mandate and a popular vote W!
Keep up with irrelevant math and details…. Only number that is relevant is the number 4. 4 more years till the next election! 😎
Wow. Head-in-the-sand mode when challenged!
The smallest popular vote margin in the history of the United States is FAR from being “irrelevant math and details”: it’s an absolute *fact* that, try as you like, CANNOT be denied. Yes, it’s a win: any idiot can see that. However, putting it in perspective is not an “irrelevant…detail”, it’s what’s known as “context”.
You wanna know what a “mandate” is like? Reagan won in a landslide and clearly had a mandate. Of course, he absolutely blew up the national debt and gave massive gifts to the wealthy with his joke of “trickledown economics”, which time has proven to be an absolute failure and a disaster that has hollowed out the middle class for decades. However, that’s just me editorializing: it was indeed a “mandate”. He got 58.8% of the popular vote and 97.6% of the Electoral College!
Nixon won the popular vote by 60.7%
LBJ won by 61.1%
FDR won by 60.8%
Trump didn’t even get a MAJORITY of voters. I’ll say it again: the absolute narrowest margin in the history of the United States, at 1.47%. A win, clearly, but “an unprecedented and powerful mandate”, as Trump said? Yet another lie, but you and your MAGA cohorts just suck up the lies like a sponge.
Dutch, The transformation of the Supreme Court doesn’t get the attention it deserves, both in the recent past and ongoing now. What’s your opinion on why that isn’t talked about very much by either the left or the right?
It’s amazing to me that it is not talked about! In my humble opinion it’s one of the most important decisions a president can make. As a far right conservative I’m delighted with 2 of President Trumps selections from his first term. If he fill the seats of Alito and Thomas he’s gonna need to go very conservative. A Dem seat will be a bonus. As you know, President Trump published a list of names prior to the 2016 election of potential Supreme Court justices he would consider. Not sure why he or KH didn’t do the same this election cycle. Very over looked and important subject!
Sad that fairly large percentage if Americans don’t care about their nation sufficiently to seek out well-rounded information or even really to change the channel, if only for a bit..I suspect that after what they’ll see over the next two years,they’ll be motivated to get better informed before the midterms.
Indeed. And Donald Trump is an expert at capturing the "national" news cycle day after day, week after week. For example, I watch (ed) CNN (slowed down extensively these past months) and there is (was) not one day that goes (went) by that they did not talk about DJT. Again, as long as your name is out there over and over again (good or bad) you get recognition and folks remember that people talk about you all the time so....
Yup, he takes up all the oxygen, 24/7.
Chris, you correctly observed that correlation is not causation you immediately then pivoted to introduce a lot of meaningless information and conjecture as to why it might be a causative factor of the election outcome in those deserts. My primary residence is in a rural community in northwest CT, and I can assure you that the residents are very informed on local( think town meetings) , regional, state and National issues. Much more so than the average NYC ( where my office is) dweller is than perhaps the residents of portions of Manhattan. They value their liberty and the town is if a size where the regional news stations and newspapers and the internet work just fine fir anyone who cares, and the one think the great majority of them agree upon is the the government ( state and national) is too intrusive in their lives. In spite of that , a slight majority of then still vote Democratic, but by a far smaller margin than what has become other counties of what has evolved during my 82 year lifetime from a moderate Republican State to one very left of center. I used to be a local newspaper carrier during my youth, when TV was in its infancy and everyone knew practically everyone in their community and politicians had to earn your trust. Guess what? The world has changed and we don’t get our news any more from the pony express rider or the telegraph either. 🙂🙂
Enjoyed the cross out for “ indoctrinate,“ brought a big smile, thanks!!! Enjoy the weekend.
^This!
What's missing is a discussion of how those local news outlets retired. While the balkanization of the advertising market was a major factor, so too was consolidation of media pushed by the financial industry, which resulted in unsustainable debt loads for many newspapers, radio stations, and local TV stations. Said debt eviscerated their staffs. The few that escaped consolidation and have limited debt are surviving and, in some cases, thriving. That does not mean that their serviced communities are different, politically, than others of a similar nature. There are several low-debt, well-staffed local media outlets in my area, but the rural counties served are 65% Republican, as they always have been, and the content offered to them frequently reflects that bias.
The Baltimore Banner is a non-profit online newspaper that in my opinion really excels at in-depth local journalism.
Good post!
What if the news deserts (and on first glance I thought you were talking about puddings!) were due to existing sectarianism (Democrats vs Trump Republicans) rather than sectarianism being due to a lack of local news, education and information?
Today, fewer people are likely to buy a newspaper which doesn’t reinforce your already existing extreme views. Bothsidesing, as CNN has tried to do doesn’t work. Both sides hate it. And there’s plenty of free social media you can access which pushes any extreme view that you are looking for along with a community to go with it that fits you like a glove.
To replace the community you actually live in!!!!
I’m not sure even making local newspapers free would make them more successful. Inter state migration based on ideology (moving to Oregon which allows abortion, for example) is only likely to make red counties redder. Blue counties bluer.
1970’s-2000 Northern Ireland is a model here. It was very clear what side of the divide you were on. Nothing was ever going to change that. Least of all local news.
Salem News, Gloucester Daily Times, Eagle Tribune (Lawrence, MA). Salemnews.com Gloucestertimes.com eagletribune.com
The Spokesman Review in Spokane, WA
The loss of local newspapers is a tragedy but could be addressed as they are trying to do in Minnesota. The Star Tribune has set up a program to address the loss of rural newspapers in Minnesota by expanding their coverage of the state. It's still a work in progress, but they are trying to do something. The problem is that they just do not have enough resources yet to do the job justice.
Another approach is to utilize the internet and setup digital news sources using Substack or similar online resources. The only issue there is that not all rural areas have reasonable access to the internet.
The problem with both approaches is that the reporters and editors out in the rural areas have found other employment or left the area. As a result, those resources have to be replaced and that will take time.
I agree with the analyses that explain the loss on the fact that Democrats did not discuss what was on the minds of moderate left and independent voters. They pushed topics that appealed to the far left base as though the far left would not have voted for them if they didn't focus on them.
But the absolute nail in the coffin was when Harris couldn't come up with anything she would have changed from the Biden approach. There were ways that she could have answered that question without tossing Biden under the bus but also showed that she was thinking about other options and approaches.
I am still betting that Trump and his cronies will totally screw the pooch in mismanaging the economy as well as rolling out Project 2025 ideas that will have seriously adverse effects on their base. As a result, the 2026 mid-term elections will be very interesting and could have a good chance of handing Congress back to the Democrats.
Oh, come on, all that proves is that Trump carried the rural counties by landslide margins, which is already well known. Besides which -- how many cities are, in reality, “news deserts?” How many people in Philadelphia actually read the Inquirer? People all over the country rely on the national media for coverage of national events such as national elections. Trying to parse out “local impact” would be extremely difficult (unless you live a mile from the border with Mexico).
Take a look at the Fauquier Times, based in Warrenton VA, an hour west of DC but a rural area. A former family- owned paper that was bought by local residents to save it and then turned into a non profit. It covers local zoning issues, quality of life, local government and sports ~~ all information that citizens need and can’t get anywhere else.
C’mon Chris. You know better. Local journalism is importsnt, but it’s important to cover local issues. It seems like a more plausible explanation is that areas that have stagnated economically can’t support local journalism and those same areas tended to support Trump for all the reasons we’ve all been talking about.