Disconnect between mainstream media, public

In a soul-searching interview this week, the executive editor of the influential New York Times made an amazing admission. The news guru said his newspaper underestimated the anxiety of American voters during the Presidential campaign.

But then he admitted that media powerhouses like the New York Times and the Washington Post "don't get religion."

In what should be obvious, the newspaper honcho inferred that urban elites were insulted and isolated. Their world view or national view resulted from incestuous chatter among themselves.

Yet the admission that "we have a hard time understanding religion and the role it plays in people's lives" speaks volumes about the disconnect between the mainstream media and the American public.

The spokesman for the once highly respected NYT said his newspaper had two major jobs moving forward: Covering the Trump administration and understanding why "so many people wanted such a radical change" in the federal government.

And at the core of that "understanding" is their puzzling lack of appreciation concerning the impact that religion has in so many people's lives.

When President Obama said early on that much of America's problems surrounded bible-clingers in the vast wasteland of America, we should have listened more closely.

Had we fully understood his message, his reelection in 2012 may well have been in doubt.

I also suspect that Hillary Clinton's "deplorable" comment was largely directed at the same audience that baffles the New York Times.

I don't pretend to speak for the religious community or the family of faith.

But like millions of Americans, I am a sinner in search of salvation. And a foundation in a religious belief is fundamental to that lifelong search.

But it is abundantly clear that those who guide much of our national media pay scant attention to the bible clingers for whom they hold little regard and even less respect.

You don't have to fully understand religious faith to "get" it. The concepts of loving your neighbor and helping those less fortunate should not be a stretch for the New York Times and the liberal elites who fill its pages each day.

The fact that the New York Times and others "don't get religion" actually comes as no great surprise. I strongly suspect most Americans already had a suspicion that was the case.

In the limited mindset of the media elite, the religious community amounts to the radical "alt-right" that they so disdain.

The polarization in this country is obvious on so many issues.

Yet even the bewildering acknowledgment that those who drive the national news cycle are clueless on the role of religion in many of our lives is a statement that defies the imagination.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Sikeston Standard-Democrat.