The things journalists should pay attention to are the issues the political leadership agrees on, rather than to their supposed antagonisms.

Pollan’s remark urges reporters to look past the theatrical “horse-race” framing of politics—public feuds, partisan sound bites, and staged antagonisms—and instead scrutinize the areas of elite consensus. The implication is that what leaders across parties quietly agree to (on budgets, foreign policy, regulatory priorities, or the boundaries of acceptable debate) often shapes outcomes more decisively than their advertised conflicts. As a critique of mainstream political journalism, the quote argues for investigative attention to shared assumptions, institutional incentives, and bipartisan continuities—because these can reveal whose interests are being protected and which questions are being kept off the agenda.