BRAVE EXPLORERS: Huffington Post To Take Staffers On 23-City Road Trip Through Unknown, Terrifying Place Called ‘Middle America’

On Thursday, Politico announced that Huffington Post would be taking its readers on a voyage of discovery to strange, uncharted lands. Like Vasco De Gama venturing out into new territories, Huffington Post will be packing a few of its staffers onto a leaky bus and taking them on a cross-country, seven-week tour through dark, mysterious “Middle America.” The cost: $1 million.

Yes, really:

Starting in September, a traveling party of rotating HuffPost staff members led by editor-in-chief Lydia Polgreen will visit more than 20 cities, eschewing the coasts for the likes of Fort Wayne, Ind., Oxford, Miss., and Odessa, Texas. At each city, the site will host events, roll out planned stories with local media outlets, send out reporters to write about the communities and collect stories from residents “in their own words.”…. “This would be identity defining for HuffPost,” said Polgreen in an interview. “We are in a moment for [determining] our own identity and the role we play in the overall news ecosystem and what the next iteration of that looks like. And this felt like a great way to go out and … report out the story of who we should be in the world.”

Don’t worry, gang. The Leftist media isn’t out of touch.

This does show that so-called “flyover country” is new to the media. Their disconnect with people who live in Texas and Oklahoma and Alabama and Michigan and Wisconsin is quite real. They don’t understand their values; they don’t understand their lifestyles. This is why CNN’s Erin Burnett mocks Christian pastors for laying hands on President Trump (they did the same for President Obama, but nobody cared), and why the entire media was shocked that anybody would vote for Donald Trump.

But it won’t suffice to visit these places. Until the media begin hiring in these areas, they won’t have boots on the ground, or a perspective into the places they seek to cover. Jet-setting through Odessa isn’t exactly going to provide the sort of empathetic analysis the Left lacks about people outside of New York and Los Angeles.

And so the Huffington Post tour is much more likely to be a sort of Jeff Corwin experience for city folk than a real educational experience. “Look, Bill, what is that lady doing going into that building with the cross on top? It’s a Sunday! Doesn’t she know it’s time for brunch at the local coffee shop? I mean, they serve avocado toast from Whole Foods on Sundays!”

Good luck, Huffington Post. May God – well, er, Planned Parenthood – be with you.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/18548/brave-explorers-huffington-post-take-staffers-23-ben-shapiro