I guess I've been in journalism—such as it is these days—for two decades now. And if there's one thing I'm constantly reminded of, it's that writers and readers are often on very different pages.

My first journalism professor pointed this out years ago when he asked the room full of would-be cub reporters what the most read part of any daily newspaper was. No one offered up the right answer—which, of course, was the obituaries. Needless to say, it sits comfortably at the bottom of the journalism pecking order—the purgatory every young reporter is sentenced to begin their career. We hate it. Readers love it.

I used to think politicians were equally out of touch with their electorate, and I'm often proven right. But as the election cycle really starts to ramp up—and after our own in-house debacle this week—I'm starting to wonder.