I'm sure that you've heard the term "flyover country". That's the derogatory term that elites use to describe the part of the country that they are forced to fly over while jetting from LA or San Francisco to New York Chicago or Boston. Expressing disdain for the most of the country is a form of virtue signalling. Sure, you might have to cover events in, say, Albuquerque or Tulsa, but you don't like it there. You are "in" but not "of".
This embarrassment/animosity applies equally to reporters who actually live in flyover country. Rather than admit that they are part of the community, they cover it like a foreign correspondent reporting on a local backwater. Here' s great example from the Star's Tim Steller.
I'm from Tucson, and my parents still live there. I don't consider meth seizures to be a defining feature of Tucson*. Facebook isn't the only thing that's driving newspapers into bankruptcy--condescending, virtue signaling columnists drive away readers.
When I started writing Espresso Pundit in 2004, Lee Enterprises' stock was trading at $47.00 per share. Today it is trading at 86 cents.
*The three defining features of Tucson are Mountain Views, Monsoon Storms and untimed traffic lights.