Could be Jim Warren if he was nasal, cynical, and balding.
"Covering America like it's a foreign country" is ambiguous. It could mean presuming that one doesn't understand the country and taking a closer and more revealing look into how one's countrymen actually live. Or it could mean taking a cynical, alienated view of the rest of the country that simply uncovers caricatures and stereotypes. If it's the latter, it won't be an improvement.
But maybe journalists might consider how many "degrees of separation" divide or link Manhattanites to Tulsans or San Franciscans to Topekans. We may be closer than we think. Just as American who can speak Arabic or Russian or Chinese come into demand when there's confusion overseas, so New Yorkers who understand Kansas or Nebraskans who know LA may be able to go far in today's climate.
It was Jim Warren.
I missed most of this show, including the part this thread is based on BUT I heard Warren say his best friend growing up was Bill Kristol.
So, we had Brit Hume knowing John Kerry as a kid, Jim Warren being best buds as a lad with Bill Kristol.
Maybe some regular schmoes like us should get gigs as "pundits". (Nothing against, Hume, per se, but what's with this from birth to career insular community they have established? On top of dem operatives moving seamlessly from politcal aide to media employment and back again...If a Republican makes that kind of movement the dems/media cry foul.)