2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumOur media is just this dumb: Easily suckered press screws Bernie Sanders again
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Of course, its not just Sanders as an individual candidate they dont like. Rather, its a reflection of deep ideological biases, which the Sanders campaign challenges head on. He is attacking the establishment for decades of mismanagementon the rigged economy and the corruption of democracy most of all, but also on climate change, reckless foreign wars, and more recently (having actually listened to and learned from Black Lives Matter activists) on racial justice. The establishment media are part of the establishment, and they are attacking Sanders in returnnot because hes wrong, but because hes right. They just need to find the right terrain on which to attack himand this is what this latest round has been all about, finding some way to convince the electorate to see Sanders in the same superficially negative terms that they themselves do.
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There is a very interesting contrast in media coverage of House Speaker Paul Ryan. In Washington policy circles Ryan is treated as a serious budget wonk. How many reporters have written about the fact this serious budget wonk has repeatedly proposed eliminating most of the federal government. This was not an offhand gaffe that Ryan made when caught in a bad moment, this was in his budgets that he pushed through as chair of the House Budget Committee.
This fact can be found in the Congressional Budget Offices (CBO) analysis of Ryans budget (page 16, Table 2). The analysis shows Ryans budget shrinking everything other than Social Security and Medicare and other health care programs to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2050. This is roughly the current size of the military budget, which Ryan has indicated he wants to increase. That leaves zero for everything else.
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In stark contrast, the Congressional Progressive Caucuswhich Sanders co-founded when he first entered Congresshas repeatedly put forth its own Peoples Budget proposals that actually do dramatically reduce the deficit. Their 2012 fiscal year budget, for example, would have eliminated the deficit complete by 2021:
Instead of eroding Americas hard-earned retirement plan and social safety net, our budget targets the true drivers of deficits in the next decade: the Bush Tax Cuts, the wars overseas, and the causes and effects of the recent recession. By implementing a fair tax code, by building a resilient American economy, and by bringing our troops home, we achieve a budget surplus of over $30 billion by 2021 and we end up with a debt that is less than 65% of our GDP. This is what sustainability looks like.
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All of the above are in line with Bernie Sanders politics and all are extremely popular, with support across the political spectrum. For example, the infrastructure jobs program (a key element of Sanders platform) had 91% support from Democrats, 61% from independents and even 55% support from Republicanscompared to only 28% who were opposed. Donald Trump can only dream of being that popular among Republicans.
Those are the sorts of popular issues directly or indirectly implicated in the Sanders campaign. A serious substantive campaign focused on them would not only serve the interests and desires of the majority of the American people; it would also provide an excellent framework for evaluating just who is really qualified to be the kind of leader that our nation really needs.
http://www.salon.com/2016/04/17/our_media_is_just_this_dumb_easily_suckered_press_screws_bernie_sanders_again/
This is a good read.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,022 posts)themselves and their money...as directed by their corporate masters.
Uncle Joe
(58,426 posts)NRaleighLiberal
(60,022 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)eastwestdem
(1,220 posts)The biggest problem Bernie has is that he is going against most of the Democratic party, the MSM and all of those who are fine with the system how it is (or at least afraid of change). I wish he had started his revolution a few years ago. It would have been so much easier to educate people when not in the middle of a campaign, because now everything he says is looked at with suspicion.
Autumn
(45,120 posts)know exactly what they are doing and they have it down to a science. It's the people who are easily suckered.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,022 posts)Autumn
(45,120 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,426 posts)They absolutely love Citizens United and Super-pacs with vast streams of unregulated money streaming in from all over the globe buying their political ads and commercials.
Their upper management and extremely well paid pundits don't want higher taxes on the wealthy.
The fossil fuel industries can shell out hefty prices for their commercials and ads, so anthropological climate change gets put on the back burner by the corporate media conglomerates.
Big Pharma does the same using stratospheric prices charged to the American People to pay for continuous commercials, the corporate media conglomerates profit from this as well.
Their parent corporations have economic interests in maintaining a perpetual state of war so as to feed the Defense Industry as the expense of vital domestic needs.
Autumn
(45,120 posts)It's very disheartening.
Uncle Joe
(58,426 posts)save democracy from totally descending into oligarchy and authoritarian rule, this struggle will need to be won despite them.
Skwmom
(12,685 posts)passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)Candidates the media deem to be serious do not get these policy pop quizzes, because it is believed (accurately) that they can hire experienced advisers who can work out the details. But if they were pressed, theres no doubt a studied reporter could make them look silly.
Yes, the people are easily suckered.
Thanks for posting this excellent article Joe.
Uncle Joe
(58,426 posts)Peace to you, passiveporcupine.
bjo59
(1,166 posts)It's virtually wholly corporate owned is what it is (6 corporations own 90% of the media). Who's corporate friendly? Hillary Clinton is, that's who. Why would a corporate owned media leviathan support Bernie Sanders (or report on anything that goes against its own self interest)? Thank you Bill Clinton for the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that provided the deregulation that allowed the corporate consolidation of the media in this country.
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)Corporate media is in bed with manipulation, money, and control.
Who pays the bills for corporate media? Corporate advertising.