[rad-green] 'The People Versus the Oligarch': Bloomberg Planning All-Out Media Assault on Sanders Ahead of Super Tuesday

*https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/24/people-versus-oligarch-bloomberg-planning-all-out-media-assault-sanders-ahead-super
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/24/people-versus-oligarch-bloomberg-planning-all-out-media-assault-sanders-ahead-super>Common
Dreams          February 24, 2020'The People Versus the Oligarch':
Bloomberg Planning All-Out Media Assault on Sanders Ahead of Super
Tuesday"The Bloomberg machine turns its billions onto Sanders in a first
test of what the general election will look like."by Eoin Higgins, staff
writer*

[image: Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and
former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg take a break during the
Democratic presidential primary debate at Paris Las Vegas on February 19,
2020 in Las Vegas.]

*Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former
New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg take a break during the Democratic
presidential primary debate at Paris Las Vegas on February 19, 2020 in Las
Vegas. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)*

New reporting out Monday reveals that billionaire plutocrat Michael
Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor whose record spending has
propelled him into the top tier of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary
race, is preparing a full-scale, "multipronged attack" on Sen. Bernie
Sanders with a massive "media onslaught" against the Democratic frontrunner.

According to
<https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/mike-bloomberg-prepares-media-blitz-against-bernie-sanders.html>
CNBC,
which broke the story, Bloomberg's strategy will involve spending huge sums
of his limitless money on digital ads, publishing opposition research, and
pushing surrogates to appear on TV and write op-eds against the Vermont
senator ahead of Super Tuesday.

"The Bloomberg machine turns its billions onto Sanders in a first test of
what the general election will look like," tweeted *The Hill*'s Sagaar
Enjeti.

There it is. The Bloomberg machine turns its billions onto Sanders in a
first test of what the general election will look like
https://t.co/GOQpedXFvN

— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) February 24, 2020
<https://twitter.com/esaagar/status/1232015197952495616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

Dutch economist and Netherlands Labour Party member Maarten Wiedemeijer put
it as a struggle between one of the world's richest men and the movement.

"The people versus the oligarch," said Wiedemeijer.

The people versus the oligarch https://t.co/4ZcbLJbnC6

— Maarten Wiedemeijer (@M_Wiedemeijer) February 24, 2020
<https://twitter.com/M_Wiedemeijer/status/1232008148359270402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

FEC filings show Bloomberg's campaign spent $220 million in ad buys in
January alone; the campaign has spent
<https://twitter.com/Ad_Analytics/status/1231996487716032515> over $500
million total, according
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-24/bloomberg-tops-half-a-billion-dollars-in-campaign-advertising>
 to *Bloomberg News*.

Bloomberg's surging profile has been boosted by the volume of coverage
about him.

In the first 6 weeks of his campaign — when he was polling in the low
single digits:

Bloomberg: 24.8k articles about
Warren: 17.3k
Sanders: 5.2k
Klobuchar: 2.2k  https://t.co/AROCg1i0jj

— Axios (@axios) February 20, 2020
<https://twitter.com/axios/status/1230614319752241152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

That cash flow into the coffers of news networks and newspapers has created
an uncomfortable situation for for-profit news outlets who expect to cover
the billionaire—the spending appeared to result in more coverage, as *Axios*
 reported
<https://www.axios.com/michael-bloomberg-democratic-primary-attention-339daa36-cb59-49b0-970a-f099b871ff2e.html>
on
February 20:

In the first six weeks of his campaign from early November to
mid-December—when he was polling in the low single digits—Bloomberg had
24,754 articles written about him. That compared to 17,259 for Warren,
11,954 for Sanders, 5,242 for Buttigieg and 2,243 for Klobuchar.

*CNBC *reports the mayor has decided to focus all of his energy and bank
account on the Vermont senator through the Super Tuesday contests on March
3, where 14 states are set to hold primaries.

According to *CNBC*:

On Monday, the Bloomberg campaign attempted to paint Sanders as a past ally
of the National Rifle Association, a gun advocacy group that Bloomberg has
fought for over a decade.

The attacks on Sanders, who has accused Bloomberg of trying to buy the
Democratic nomination, will also attempt to highlight negative aspects of
his record on race relations both as a congressman and senator, the sources
said. This comes after Sanders, now seen as the Democratic front-runner,
has taken aim at Bloomberg for his support of a policing policy known as
stop-and-frisk that often targeted black and Latino people.

"This is a bold move for Bloomberg, given his history of both racist
comments and racist policies," said
<https://twitter.com/germanrlopez/status/1232019027490246657> *Vox* reporter
German Lopez of the new strategy by the billionaire's campaign.

The news came two days after Joe Lockhart, a longtime Democratic strategist
and former press secretary to former President Bill Clinton, in an opinion
piece for *CNN *called on Bloomberg to take the frontrunner out.

Corporate consultant @JoeLockhart
<https://twitter.com/joelockhart?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw> yesterday: “Bloomberg
needs to use the next $400 million in ad spending to attack Sanders”
https://t.co/WjtCZK3k8e

Today: https://t.co/8G0EGM9PV3

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) February 24, 2020
<https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/1232018421207822336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

*New York* magazine writer Eric Levitz suggested
<https://twitter.com/EricLevitz/status/1232017201777070080> that a
full-bore assault from Bloomberg could be just what the Sanders campaign
needs to prepare for a general election contest with the incumbent,
President Donald Trump.

"This will be a good test of the durability of Bernie's strength in polls
against Trump," tweeted Levitz. "If Bloomberg's wall-to-wall character
assassination campaign doesn't erase Bernie's advantage in those polls, no
reason to think he can't hold strong in the general."

-- 

--- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sid-l" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected].
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sid-l/CACKppczsibv7%3DmzjNNOZ-MjWjZJ_y2CF8krwKPTvg55%3DKCBT4A%40mail.gmail.com.

---
To unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]>
List help: <https://riseup.net/lists>