How many things did you think that the mainstream journalists missed in the 2016 election? Here is an interesting list of 10 things that slipped right past them, and it also includes some reasons as to why. From the inside-the-beltway bubble, to just plain old elitism, Mr. Pollak covers it well. For you edification, enjoy the read.

As Written By Joel Pollak for Breitbart:

Journalists think the problem in 2016 was political, not professional — i.e. not that they were wrong, but that the wrong outcome happened.

1. Hello: This is not a new problem. The media have been functioning as an arm of the Democratic Party for several years. Some are only willing to acknowledge it now because Trump’s win was such shock to them, and because many made their partisan loyalties explicit in 2016. But the profession has been corrupt for a long time, and remains so, from top to bottom.

2. Journalists ignored the basics. Who, What, When, Where, Why, How. Journalists were far too busy telling their audience what to think about about the candidates and the issues than to bother with telling them what was actually going on. Not one of the high-minded essays in the Nieman anthology grasps this point. Journalists neglected the basics in favor of punditry.

3. Journalists were blinded by hate. After Trump’s final rally in New Hampshire, the country’s elite journalists were more interested in whether Tom Brady had really voted for Trump or Bill Belichick had really written him a letter than in the fact that Trump had just made an explicit appeal to working-class voters, something you almost never see Republicans do. They hated Trump so much that they simply could not listen to what he was saying except to find gaffes with which to punish him.

4. Elitism. Journalists approached this election like a medieval guild defending their place among the privileged. They failed to notice that technological advances have enabled virtually anyone to compete with them, whether as “citizen journalists” or itinerant social media participants. That should have driven professional journalists to prove their skill. Instead, they sulked. They mocked their audience without realizing that their audience now has alternative outlets, and the means to fight back.

5. Little real diversity. Journalists wrote often about the number of white people at Trump rallies. Ironically, the traveling press corps was almost entirely white, with a few exceptions. There was more racial diversity in the crowds than in the media pen. The most important kind of diversity goes beyond color, but neither the media nor the academy wants to know that.

6. Journalists are …..

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Blue State Blues: 10 Things That Journalists Did Wrong in 2016