I sometimes roll my eyes at reporters from major media and their visits to diners to talk with real Americans in flyover land.

But I found myself one morning at the corner cafe on the main street of Elizabethtown, population 3,000 plus, in North Carolina's border belt.

A half dozen white men in their late 60s and older, sat around a table in the middle of the cafe.

I'd learned the day before talking with one of the men that these guys meet here every weekday.

Nice to you, Ray.

Ray. Nice to meet you, Ray.

Rudy.

Some used to run local businesses or still do.

There's a banker and a dentist both retired.

Several of the men say an important reason they come to this table most days is to find out what's going on in their community.

Cue the self-deprecating quip.

The problem is when we get home and the wife say,

what did y'all learn today?

We can't remember anything.

But their need for information is no joke.

I tell them I'm trying to understand how Americans actually experience the news media.

The talk soon comes around to the news coverage of Bladen County

and how barren it is compared to a few decades ago.

We don't have a source.

The Bladen Journal...

This is Ray Cross, the retired dentist.

He explains that his wife, Denise Cross, worked at the local newspaper, the Bladen Journal,

...