Not the real world

A while back, I wrote that the real bias in the press is not to the left or right, but towards government. Most journalists spend their days swimming in a sea of government -- in part because it's so easy to cover -- and over time, come to mistake this for the real world, where people rarely interact with government and prefer it that way.

A publisher in North Carolina recently came to the same conclusion:

Look at the front page of almost any daily newspaper in any town in America. What do you see? Invariably there will be a story or two about some victim group or person who is being helped by a government program...

You’ve all seen them, especially around the holidays. Editors seem to think this activity is the essence of American life. Except for the advertising, a newspaper reader from another planet would never know there was a private sector. Editorial content is skewed heavily toward the activities of the welfare state because that’s the sector that reporters and editors identify with.

Unfortunately for newspapers, most people have nothing to do with the welfare state and its many mechanisms, except for funding it with their tax dollars. The private sector is where they live. They go to work, raise their kids, pay their taxes and don’t ask anything from the government except for national defense, good schools, garbage pickup, water and sewer hookups and effective police protection. They don’t want to be hit over the head with stories designed to make them feel guilty for not needing government welfare.

He goes on to offer thoughts about why newspapers have become divorced from the real world. If you're interested, read the whole thing.