Trump. Brexit. Mueller. Journalists keep misjudging public mood

Hannah Thomas-Peter, US correspondent

In America's heartland, the Mueller report fizzled like a damp firework.

I've just been to West Virginia, the state that handed Donald Trump his largest margin of victory in 2016.

When I asked Bucky Hess, the owner of Bucky's Auto Body and Auto Repair in Martinsburg, if he would like to see the full report, he said: "I could care less."

Mr Hess explained that he considered the matter closed, and was pretty disgusted that Democrats now seem unhappy with what he believes is a very straightforward conclusion.

"Did he collude with Russia or didn't he? He didn't. So it's over."

His employees all felt the same way - angry at what they saw as a lengthy partisan attempt to unseat the president, and absolutely insistent that Mr Trump now be left alone to do his job and concentrate on issues they care about: the economy, jobs, healthcare.

They have so little faith in the nation's capital and its institutions of government, that even if the Mueller report had indicted the president, I think they would have had trouble believing it.

A few people I asked hadn't even heard of the the special counsel and what he has been doing for the last two years.

It made me consider how preoccupied the media, and I include myself in this, has been about the Mueller investigation and its potential outcome.

The extent of the coverage and the anticipation of the results were completely at odds with how so many American voters felt about it.

I'm not just talking about Republican voters, but many Democrats too.

Polls often suggested that 'the Russia issue' was way down the list of priorities.

Over and over again in recent years we have been reminded that what journalists and pundits in big urban centres see doesn't always match up with the lived experience of the audience they are supposed to be connecting with.

Senior Democrats are already urging those running in 2020 to concentrate on the domestic matters that affect people's lives.

Does that mean the press were wrong to assign the Mueller report such importance?

I'm not sure.

It is an extraordinary thing for a sitting president and the people around him to be investigated by a special counsel.

And I don't agree with the idea that, as one journalist put it, the Mueller report is this generation's WMD.

But.

Over and over again in recent years we have been reminded that what journalists and pundits in big urban centres see doesn't always match up with the lived experience of the audience they are supposed to be connecting with.

It's why the election of Donald Trump seemed so stunning, why Brexit took everyone by surprise.

Inside our urban bubbles, many of us (not all of us) were late to register these impending outcomes.

The Mueller report was perhaps not an event on the same scale.

But it's always healthy to have one's perspective unceremoniously adjusted.

I can thank Bucky and his employees for that.

Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Paste BN editors and correspondents, published every morning.

Previously on Sky Views: Martha Kelner - He's accused of rape but the law moves slowly if you're Ronaldo