Eastern Bias

I know, that's silly, but let me explain. First, some statistics you may have never heard. The "Lower 48" United States span four time zones. Believe it or not, a lot of Americans do not realize that.

50% of the population of the "Lower 48" live in the Eastern Time Zone.
30% live in the Central Time Zone.
5% live in the Mountain Time Zone.
15% occupy the Pacific Time Zone.

Ever notice how TV announcers proclaim that a certain program will be aired "at 9:00, 8:00 Central"? (As a rule, programs are aired in the Pacific Zone at the same clock time as the Eastern Zone.) So, what time will the program air in the Mountain Zone? Who cares? The population there is too small to be important.

I live in the Mountain Time Zone and am often in my office at 6:00 a.m. Since we do business with people in the Eastern Zone, it is not uncommon to receive calls as early as 6:00. The caller asks for someone by name. I reply that the person they are calling is usually not in the office until 7:00 a.m. Most frequently there is a silent pause, after which the caller says,"Uh... what time is it there?"

Yesterday there was record breaking rainfall in El Paso, TX, which is located on the U.S./Mexico border. The city was flooded, roads washed out and many residents evacuated from their homes. The temperature plunged during the thunderstorms that brought the rain.

I turned on a national cable TV news channel to see if they would mention El Paso in their weather reports. They did not. As always, the weather reporter stood in front of the map of the "Lower 48", completely blocking our view of the entire Mountain Time Zone. Numbers over the map indicated temperatures in the high 90s or low 100s over most of the nation. When the weather person did briefly move to the viewer's right, the number 68º was seen posted for El Paso. That was at least 30º below temperatures of cities on the Canadian border. Doesn't that seem a bit strange? Would you not expect the reporter to note that extreme? Not a chance. El Paso is in the Mountain Time Zone. Who cares?

But, Eastern Bias goes beyond just ignoring us. A lot of Easterners think Westerners are all hicks. About 25 years ago I was at a business meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. A speaker was reciting results from a successful new advertising technique used in Pittsburgh. A member of the audience (an Easterner, but not from Pittsburgh) asked the speaker if he thought an advertiser could expect the same results "in a less sophisticated city, such as Oklahoma City." Hmmm!

All the way home I thought about that remark and wondered what constitutes a "sophisticated city" and why Oklahoma City (in the Central, not the Mountain Time Zone, but clearly considered to be 'in the west') was not one. Back in my office, I started looking up statistics, trying to find something that would point to sophistication. No luck. I did note, however, that Oklahoma City's population contained a higher per cent of college graduates than did the population in Pittsburgh.