Letter to Washington

Tim Alberta explains why he moved home to Michigan:

“Reporting on national politics is an insider’s game, where scoops are often measured in micrograms. This work can be important, and valuable—I’ve certainly done plenty of it—but the rise of Donald Trump exposed its inherent limitations. For a time, following his shocking victory in November 2016, there was sincere introspection within elite media circles over how to do better the next time. Sadly, news organizations have largely defaulted to covering this campaign the same way they covered the last one, and the one before that. Parachute into the provinces. Report around a frame of campaign gossip and consultant-speak. Check the box with a few man-on-the-street interviews. Stuff a Joe Six-Pack quote into the sunset paragraphs of a story, feigning an intimacy with the perspectives of the people. Rinse and repeat.”

“There exists in today’s media, as one colleague recently grumbled to me, ‘an institutional bias against hearing what voters have to say.’ We at Politico are sometimes guilty of it. So are our rivals at legacy outlets and new media startups alike. It’s not glamorous to elevate the voice of the everyman, to give a platform to someone Americans have never heard of, someone with no money or influence or connections. But to do this job—to inform citizens of what is happening, and to explain *why* it is happening—it has become essential.”