During an interview with NPR’s “Fresh Air” released on Thursday, New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet stated “we did not have a handle on just how much anxiety there was in the country. And we did not have a handle on just how much that anxiety was going to drive the election.” And “the New York-based, and Washington-based too, probably, media powerhouses don’t quite get religion.”
Baquet said, [relevant remarks begin around 28:30] “We wrote a lot of stories about anxiety in America. We even did a series called ‘Anxious America.’ But we did not have a handle on just how much anxiety there was in the country. And we did not have a handle on just how much that anxiety was going to drive the election. … I could pull out 25 stories that would prove the point that we wrote about it. But I would be dishonest if I didn’t say those stories didn’t quite add up to a powerful portrait of an angry electorate, an electorate that just wanted change. So, yeah, I think that’s a story we could have done better. By the way, I think even Donald Trump was surprised by the level of that anxiety in the country, everybody was. But, I’m answering for me.”
He added, “I want to make sure that we are much more creative about beats out in the country, so that we understand that anger and disconnectedness that people feel. I think I use religion as an example because I was raised Catholic in New Orleans. I think that the New York-based, and Washington-based too, probably, media powerhouses don’t quite get religion. We have a fabulous religion writer, but she’s all alone. We don’t get religion. We don’t get the role of religion in people’s lives. And I think we can do much, much better. And I think there are things that we can be more creative about to understand the country.”
(h/t Mediaite)
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