Media ignores China's huge investment in West Virginia during Trump visit

Salena Zito:
Bad news travels fast. Good news, meanwhile, doesn’t seem to travel at all.

Last weekend in Beijing, as part of his 12-day trip to Asia, President Trump announced that the US and China had signed an $83.7 billion deal to create a number of petrochemical projects in West Virginia over the next 20 years.

If the agreement holds tight, it is an economic game changer for the state.

And yet, speaking to the locals here, you wouldn’t even know it had happened.

“I am surprised I heard nothing about it on the national news, nor in my local paper and newscasts,” said Jerald Stephens, 67, a West Virginia native and union rep, who has been a keen observer of local politics for as long as he can remember.

The BBC and CNN covered the news in their business sections, while The New York Times picked up a short story by The Associated Press on the deal. The stories’ headlines were muted; their placement low-key.

“One would have suspected that the prospect of an investment this large — nearly three times the total annual budget for the department of energy — would have been front-page news,” said Paul Sracic, political-science professor at nearby Youngstown State University.
...
The media has often mocked Trump’s promise of jobs to the Heartland as empty campaign rhetoric. How, they asked, will his voters react when they find out he can’t deliver?

This deal suggests that Trump hasn’t forgotten what really matters to his base, but few are giving him props for it.

Stephens finds the lack of coverage telling. “I can guarantee you if anyone not named Trump had made this kind of deal for West Virginia, it would have at least been a panel discussion or two on a cable news channel.”

Once again, the media is missing a story that matters to the American people outside the liberal echo chamber. But it would have helped if Trump had shouted about his own success.
...
I did a post that included the deal based on a CNBC story near the end of the President's Asia trip, but I too was surprised by the lack of coverage in much of the mainstream media.  The total investment by China and its companies in US projects was around $250 billion.  That is no small investment that will create thousands of jobs.  Perhaps that is why liberals in teh media are suppressing the news.

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