DeepSummary
Sam Adlerbell and Matthew Sitman welcome Sarah Jones, a staff writer for New York magazine, to discuss her essay 'Scapegoat Country' about media coverage of rural America and Trump voters. Sarah, who grew up in a conservative religious household in Appalachia, critiques the widespread media tendency to parachute into rural areas for election cycles and exoticize their inhabitants, viewing them solely through the lens of Trump support.
The discussion explores Sarah's nuanced perspective coming from that background but now working in liberal New York media. She advocates for more positive stories highlighting those rural Americans fighting issues like the opioid epidemic, and representing the diversity often overlooked in coverage. The challenges of improving socioeconomic and geographic diversity in journalism are examined.
The conversation turns to conservative media's alternative reality around Trump, particularly highlighted in Molly Hemingway's book defending Brett Kavanaugh. The group's shared religious upbringing allowing insight into how premillennial dispensationalism and evangelical theology enable the uncritical devotion to Trump as a defensive figure against perceived persecution.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Sarah Jones critiques shallow media portrayals of rural Trump voters that exoticize and misrepresent the communities she grew up in.
- Coming from a conservative religious background but now in liberal NYC media, Jones offers a nuanced perspective advocating for coverage highlighting overlooked positives and diversity in rural America.
- Premillennial dispensationalist beliefs common among American evangelicals underpin the conservative Christian politics of feeling persecuted and their defensive allegiance to Trump.
- Conservative media outlets produce a propagandistic alternative reality around Trump, exemplified by defenses of Kavanaugh devoid of fact-checking.
- Lack of economic/geographic diversity in journalism perpetuates narrow media narratives about rural communities.
- Suspicion of outside institutions like the UN stems from premillennial dispensationalist theology rather than normal politics.
- Evangelical theology enables uncritical defense of figures like Trump by recasting flaws as proofs of righteousness facing persecution.
- Premillennial dispensationalists may court backlash from conservative policies not just for religious duty but to reinforce their self-perception as an oppressed remnant.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “So I would say that very specifically, among people who have a premillennial view of. Of the end times, they don't expect to win. Like, yeah, there is that sense of futility, but they believe their religious principles, for example, goad them into abolishing abortion. That's just the right thing to do, and it has to happen no matter what you think about the end times.“ by Sarah Jones
- “Right. I mean, we have fact checking processes, and I don't think the federalist does.“ by Sarah Jones
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Episode Information
Know Your Enemy
Matthew Sitman
10/29/19