[rad-green] Elite political journalists are eager to kick Bernie Sanders on his way out the door

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https://presswatchers.org/2020/03/elite-political-media-are-eager-to-kick-b=
ernie-sanders-on-his-way-out-the-door/


*Press Watchers          March 10, 2020*

Elite political journalists are eager to kick Bernie Sanders on his way out
the door
By
 Dan Froomkin <https://presswatchers.org/author/froomkin/>
<https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.109/hnx.548.myftpupload.com/wp-cont=
ent/uploads/2020/03/Screen-Shot-2020-03-10-at-5.jpg?time=3D1583958094>

Bernie Sanders has always made elite political journalists uncomfortable,
on a deeply personal level.

When Sanders rails against the corporate-friendly status quo, it rubs them
the wrong way. Accepting the status quo as fundamentally reasonable is a
prerequisite for succeeding in modern mainstream political journalism.
Anything else makes you an =E2=80=9Cactivist=E2=80=9D.

When Sanders says that accepting corporate money is corrupting, they feel
attacked. It=E2=80=99s not just that most of their paychecks come from giant
corporations, it=E2=80=99s that their Washington is awash with corporate mo=
ney. It
funds their spouses and their friends. It buys them drinks.

When Sanders speaks in moral absolutes and refuses to compromise on core
values, they respond with contempt at his inflexibility because they feel
remorse over their own moral flexibility.

That Sanders built a major political campaign funded by millions of
individual contributions and without lavish fundraisers; that he built a
cross-generational, multi-ethnic, socioeconomically diverse movement that
will have lasting impact even if he doesn=E2=80=99t win the Democratic nomi=
nation =E2=80=93
that makes them feel stupid. Because they said it couldn=E2=80=99t be done.

They don=E2=80=99t hate him because their corporate masters tell them to. T=
hey hate
him because he is a walking, breathing, sometimes yelling reproof of the
sacrifices they have had to make to succeed in their chosen profession.

And then there=E2=80=99s his tone. Here=E2=80=99s how Bernie Sanders talks =
=E2=80=93 this from a
session he held with public-health experts on Monday in Detroit
<https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2020/03/09/bernie-sanders-coronavi=
rus-vaccine-free-covid-19-outbreak/5003001002/>
:

Does anybody in their right mind believe that if you=E2=80=99re rich, you s=
hould be
able to afford a vaccine and save your life, and the poor have got to die?
Is that really where we=E2=80=99re at in the United States of America?

He makes it sound so obvious, and he makes it sound like anyone who
disagrees with him is an amoral idiot.

But to the extent that they have internalized the arguments for a system in
which tens of millions of Americans remain uninsured, that *is* kind of
what political journalists believe. They have come to peace with a system
of grotesque inequality, and socialism for the rich.

They cite things he says =E2=80=93 for example, that accepting corporate mo=
ney
makes you beholden to people who don=E2=80=99t want fundamental change =E2=
=80=94 as
examples how off-putting he is, and how contemptuous he is of the
ideologically impure, when it=E2=80=99s just, you know, truth.

Our elite political journalists take for granted that vaguely defending the
status quo does not equate to *having an agenda*. But if they took in what
Sanders is saying, they would realize that defending the status quo *is* an
agenda, and arguably not a very defensible one at that. So they push him
away.
They missed a helluva story

Consider what Bernie Sanders accomplished =E2=80=94 as cribbed from The Nat=
ion=E2=80=99s
endorsement
<https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/endorsement-2020-bernie-sanders=
/>
:

   - He =E2=80=9Cdemonstrated that it is possible to wage a competitive cam=
paign
   for the presidency without relying on wealthy donors, corporate funders,=
 or
   secretive PAC money.=E2=80=9D
   - He brought about =E2=80=9Cthe greatest leftward shift in the political
   discourse since Franklin Delano Roosevelt=E2=80=99s second term=E2=80=94=
putting not just
   Medicare for All but also the Green New Deal, free public higher educati=
on,
   fair taxation, cancellation of student debt, housing as a human right,
   universal free child care, and an unwavering critique of the billionaire
   class firmly onto the political agenda.=E2=80=9D
   - He forged =E2=80=9Ca movement campaign that expands our understanding =
of what
   can be achieved in the electoral arena and that invites us to imagine th=
at
   government of, by, and for the people might actually be possible.=E2=80=
=9D

But you wouldn=E2=80=99t have gotten a particularly good sense of that read=
ing the
mainstream media.

Will Bunch
<https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/bernie-sanders-trump-2020-presidential-me=
dia-coverage-20200225.html>,
the stand-out national columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote last
month:

Bernie=E2=80=99s rise =E2=80=94 and the everyday people fueling it, from co=
llege students
to first-time Latinx voters to fed-up warehouse workers and Uber drivers =
=E2=80=94
is a hell of story. It=E2=80=99s just not the story the elite mainstream me=
dia =E2=80=94
the dominant cable outlets and national newspapers that are largely led by
Baby Boomers (full disclosure: my own generation) and which employ the now
aging veterans of their favorite campaigns as anchors and pundits =E2=80=94=
 wants
to tell.

Indeed, they seem unfamiliar =E2=80=94 even immune =E2=80=94 to what=E2=80=
=99s driving Sanders=E2=80=99s
movement, which Bunch identified this way:

The sense of fundamental unfairness
<https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/attytood/affordability-crisis-2020-ele=
ction-college-debt-housing-20200220.html>in
this country =E2=80=94 epitomized not just by the unhoused sleeping on car =
seats in
a supposed =E2=80=9Cboomtown,=E2=80=9D but also by staggering college debt,=
 medical
bankruptcies, and a lack of child care =E2=80=94 is fueling a political rev=
olution
that has put Sanders on a White House trajectory.

And, as Bunch points out, those elite journalists have made very little
effort to understand any of this =E2=80=93 say, by interviewing regular, st=
ruggling
Americans:

The elites who populate the highest levels of media punditry, run the
Democratic Party, or get paid ridiculous sums to design nonworking apps
<https://theintercept.com/2020/02/04/iowa-caucus-app-shadow-acronym/>or buy
off Instagram meme-makers to pretend that Bloomberg is cool
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/style/michael-bloomberg-memes-jerry-med=
ia.html>
still
don=E2=80=99t have time to talk to everyday voters about why they are so an=
gry.
They are instead busy searching for a messiah that will let them go back to
their Sunday morning mimosas without worrying about a president who might
start a nuclear war with a tweet. They are missing the real revolution =E2=
=80=94
again!

Kyle Pope
<https://www.cjr.org/first_person/one-way-sanders-is-the-new-trump.php>,
the editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, concluded the same thing:

Once again, the echo chamber of the political reporting class is forcing it
to miss a story as it materializes around them. So embedded are they in the
status quo, and so determined to defend it, that they are treating the rise
of Sanders as a personal affront. And indeed it is. Theirs is precisely the
worldview Sanders is raging against. It is the same sneering, dismissive
approach to coverage that we saw applied to Trump in 2016.

Washington Post media writer Margaret Sullivan
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-media-keep-falling-in-l=
ove--with-anybody-but-bernie-sanders/2020/02/12/0f55cc12-4d9c-11ea-bf44-f50=
43eb3918a_story.html>
traced
the negativity toward Sanders to two sources:

The subtext behind much of the disdain is a partly a deep-seated sentiment
that Sanders, if nominated, has little chance of winning the general
election. But it=E2=80=99s also partly =E2=80=94 and more insidiously =E2=
=80=94 that many
journalists don=E2=80=99t identify easily with Sanders in the same way they=
 do
with, say, Warren or O=E2=80=99Rourke or Buttigieg.

The first part is arguably more disturbing than the second. It=E2=80=99s ba=
d enough
for political journalists to allow personal feelings to affect their news
judgement. But it=E2=80=99s even worse for them to be writing with partisan
considerations uppermost in mind.
Equating Sanders and Trump

NYU professor and media critic Jay Rosen has written extensively about the
political journalism profession=E2=80=99s devotion to the =E2=80=9Cview fro=
m nowhere
<https://pressthink.org/2010/11/the-view-from-nowhere-questions-and-answers=
/>=E2=80=9D
(a detachment that prohibits taking sides on political issues, especially
affirmatively) and =E2=80=9Csavviness
<https://pressthink.org/2011/08/why-political-coverage-is-broken/#p18>=E2=
=80=9D
(the need to feel above it all). The view from nowhere precludes elite
political journalists from even hinting that Sanders=E2=80=99s strongly-hel=
d views
could actually be valid. And their desire to appear savvy translates into
contempt.

Political journalists are also deeply conditioned to find balance between
the political parties. As Brian Beutler
<https://crooked.com/articles/sanders-trump-emails-2016/> wrote for Crooked:

Political journalists face strong incentives to portray the two major
parties as roughly similar moral and ethical entities that happen to share
different philosophical values.

How does that play out with Sanders?

Sanders=E2=80=99s candidacy comes as an enormous relief to practitioners of=
 this
kind of journalism. As the most left-wing member of the Senate, and perhaps
of the whole Congress, he allows political journalists to fall back on
platitudes about the parties catering to their extremes, without examining
the content of their agendas or their political styles.

The quintessential byproduct of this journalistic dysfunction is the news
article likening Sanders to Trump. Sean Sullivan and Robert Costa
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/02/two-populist-movements-=
sanders-trump/?arc404=3Dtrue>
provided
a recent example of the species in the Washington Post, writing:

Four years after Trump seized control of the Republican Party with a
right-wing populist movement, a new populist crusade has risen on the left,
fueled similarly by grievance and anxiety and powered by Sanders=E2=80=99s
remarkable drive to dispatch Trump from the White House.

Each is powered by a disdain for elites they perceive as having flourished
while other Americans suffered, a rejection of the establishment and the
figures who have controlled it, and a contempt for the institutions that
over the decades have blunted, as they see it, the success of efforts like
theirs.

Creating any kind of moral equivalence between Trump and Sanders is
grotesque. An arguably inapt description of both as =E2=80=9Cpopulist=E2=80=
=9D aside, there
is simply no equivalence when it comes to sincerity, honesty, and whether
the candidates appeal to people=E2=80=99s better or worse natures.

But it=E2=80=99s the logical extension of the elite political media=E2=80=
=99s tremendous
aversion to Sanders.
Bernie=E2=80=99s scolding

It=E2=80=99s not just that Sanders=E2=80=99s policies are interpreted by ma=
ny elite
journalists as scolding. There=E2=80=99s also the actual scolding.

In an article for CJR
<https://www.cjr.org/opinion/bernie-sanders-media-silicon-valley.php>,
Sanders shared a blistering critique of modern political journalists, even
going so far as using the words of a legendary newsman against them:

Real journalism is different from the gossip, punditry, and clickbait that
dominates today=E2=80=99s news. Real journalism, in the words of Joseph Pul=
itzer
<https://www.bartleby.com/73/1249.html>, is the painstaking reporting that
will =E2=80=9Cfight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or
corruption, [and] always fight demagogues.=E2=80=9D Pulitzer said that jour=
nalism
must always =E2=80=9Coppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never=
 lack
sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never
be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent,
never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or
predatory poverty.=E2=80=9D

Sanders insulted the very people who talk about him on TV:

At precisely the moment when we need more reporters covering the healthcare
crisis, the climate emergency, and economic inequality, we have television
pundits paid tens of millions of dollars to pontificate about frivolous
political gossip, as local news outlets are eviscerated.

And he accused the biggest employers of political journalists of corruption:

TV networks that rely on $4.5 billion a year
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/us/politics/drug-prices-tv-advertisemen=
ts.html>
of
pharmaceutical ads may be thrilled to sugarcoat our current dysfunctional
health care system=E2=80=94but they will never provide a consistently fair =
hearing
for something like Medicare for All, even though polls
<https://thehill.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/412545-70-percent-of-ame=
ricans-support-medicare-for-all-health-care>
show
that a majority of Americans support such a proposal.

Corporate media organizations sponsored
<https://www.mediamatters.org/washington-post/study-cnn-viewers-see-far-mor=
e-fossil-fuel-advertising-climate-change-reporting?redirect_source=3D/resea=
rch/2016/04/25/study-cnn-viewers-see-far-more-fossil-fuel-advertising-clima=
te-change-reporting/209985>
 by fossil fuel industry ads
<https://www.thenation.com/article/big-oil-pr-fossil-fuel-lobby-herb-schmer=
tz/>
may
gladly provide a platform for guests who insist that our current oligarchic
economy is just great, but as studies show
<https://www.citizen.org/news/major-media-commit-errors-of-omission-on-clim=
ate-change/>,
the same outlets often downplay or omit coverage of the climate crisis
<https://www.citizen.org/sites/default/files/public-citizen-carbon-omission=
-extreme-weather-2018.pdf>
that
those advertisers are helping create.

Sanders is right about every bit of that, and most political journalists
know it.

But they *really* don=E2=80=99t like it being thrown in their faces.

--=20

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<div dir=3D"ltr"><div class=3D"gmail_default" style=3D"font-size:small"><fo=
nt color=3D"#000000"><a href=3D"https://presswatchers.org/2020/03/elite-pol=
itical-media-are-eager-to-kick-bernie-sanders-on-his-way-out-the-door/" tar=
get=3D"_blank">https://presswatchers.org/2020/03/elite-political-media-are-=
eager-to-kick-bernie-sanders-on-his-way-out-the-door/</a><br></font></div><=
div class=3D"gmail_default"><font size=3D"4"><br></font></div><div class=3D=
"gmail_default"><b><font size=3D"4">Press Watchers=C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=
=A0 =C2=A0 March 10, 2020</font><br></b></div><div class=3D"gmail_default" =
style=3D"font-size:small"><font color=3D"#000000"><b><br></b></font></div><=
div class=3D"gmail_default"><div style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;font-family=
:Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif"><h1 style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;font-family:=
Trebuchet,Tahoma,Arial,sans-serif;margin:0px 0px 7px;line-height:50px"><fon=
t color=3D"#000000" size=3D"6">Elite political journalists are eager to kic=
k Bernie Sanders on his way out the door</font></h1><div style=3D"box-sizin=
g:border-box;font-family:&quot;Open Sans&quot;,arial,sans-serif;margin-bott=
om:16px;line-height:1;min-height:17px"><div style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;=
display:inline-block;float:left"><font color=3D"#000000" size=3D"4"><div st=
yle=3D"box-sizing:border-box;display:inline;margin-right:2px">By</div>=C2=
=A0<a href=3D"https://presswatchers.org/author/froomkin/" style=3D"box-sizi=
ng:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none;font-w=
eight:700;margin-right:3px" target=3D"_blank">Dan Froomkin</a></font></div>=
</div></div><div style=3D"font-size:15px;box-sizing:border-box;font-family:=
Trebuchet,Tahoma,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:1.74;margin-top:21px;padding-=
bottom:16px"><div style=3D"box-sizing:border-box"><a href=3D"https://secure=
servercdn.net/198.71.233.109/hnx.548.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/202=
0/03/Screen-Shot-2020-03-10-at-5.jpg?time=3D1583958094" style=3D"box-sizing=
:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" target=
=3D"_blank"><font color=3D"#000000"><img width=3D"472" height=3D"279" src=
=3D"https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.109/hnx.548.myftpupload.com/wp-c=
ontent/uploads/2020/03/Screen-Shot-2020-03-10-at-5-696x411.jpg" alt=3D"" ti=
tle=3D"Screen Shot 2020-03-10 at 5" style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;border:0=
px;opacity:1;margin-bottom:26px;display:block;margin-right:0px"></font></a>=
</div><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px">=
<font color=3D"#000000">Bernie Sanders has always made elite political jour=
nalists uncomfortable, on a deeply personal level.</font></p><p style=3D"bo=
x-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#0000=
00">When Sanders rails against the corporate-friendly status quo, it rubs t=
hem the wrong way. Accepting the status quo as fundamentally reasonable is =
a prerequisite for succeeding in modern mainstream political journalism. An=
ything else makes you an =E2=80=9Cactivist=E2=80=9D.</font></p><p style=3D"=
box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#00=
0000">When Sanders says that accepting corporate money is corrupting, they =
feel attacked. It=E2=80=99s not just that most of their paychecks come from=
 giant corporations, it=E2=80=99s that their Washington is awash with corpo=
rate money. It funds their spouses and their friends. It buys them drinks.<=
/font></p><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26=
px"><font color=3D"#000000">When Sanders speaks in moral absolutes and refu=
ses to compromise on core values, they respond with contempt at his inflexi=
bility because they feel remorse over their own moral flexibility.</font></=
p><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><fon=
t color=3D"#000000">That Sanders built a major political campaign funded by=
 millions of individual contributions and without lavish fundraisers; that =
he built a cross-generational, multi-ethnic, socioeconomically diverse move=
ment that will have lasting impact even if he doesn=E2=80=99t win the Democ=
ratic nomination =E2=80=93 that makes them feel stupid. Because they said i=
t couldn=E2=80=99t be done.</font></p><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;mar=
gin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#000000">They don=E2=80=99t =
hate him because their corporate masters tell them to. They hate him becaus=
e he is a walking, breathing, sometimes yelling reproof of the sacrifices t=
hey have had to make to succeed in their chosen profession.</font></p><p st=
yle=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=
=3D"#000000">And then there=E2=80=99s his tone. Here=E2=80=99s how Bernie S=
anders talks =E2=80=93 this from a session he held with public-health exper=
ts=C2=A0<a href=3D"https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2020/03/09/berni=
e-sanders-coronavirus-vaccine-free-covid-19-outbreak/5003001002/" style=3D"=
box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:non=
e" target=3D"_blank">on Monday in Detroit</a>:</font></p><blockquote style=
=3D"box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(238,238,238);bor=
der-top:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(204,204,204)=
;margin:40px 34.7969px 38px;background-repeat:no-repeat;border-left:none;fo=
nt-style:italic"><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bo=
ttom:0px;line-height:1.74;font-style:normal;margin-left:30px;padding:15px">=
<font color=3D"#000000">Does anybody in their right mind believe that if yo=
u=E2=80=99re rich, you should be able to afford a vaccine and save your lif=
e, and the poor have got to die? Is that really where we=E2=80=99re at in t=
he United States of America?</font></p></blockquote><p style=3D"box-sizing:=
border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#000000">He ma=
kes it sound so obvious, and he makes it sound like anyone who disagrees wi=
th him is an amoral idiot.</font></p><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;marg=
in-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#000000">But to the extent th=
at they have internalized the arguments for a system in which tens of milli=
ons of Americans remain uninsured, that=C2=A0<em style=3D"box-sizing:border=
-box">is</em>=C2=A0kind of what political journalists believe. They have co=
me to peace with a system of grotesque inequality, and socialism for the ri=
ch.</font></p><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-botto=
m:26px"><font color=3D"#000000">They cite things he says =E2=80=93 for exam=
ple, that accepting corporate money makes you beholden to people who don=E2=
=80=99t want fundamental change =E2=80=94 as examples how off-putting he is=
, and how contemptuous he is of the ideologically impure, when it=E2=80=99s=
 just, you know, truth.</font></p><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-=
top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#000000">Our elite political jou=
rnalists take for granted that vaguely defending the status quo does not eq=
uate to=C2=A0<em style=3D"box-sizing:border-box">having an agenda</em>. But=
 if they took in what Sanders is saying, they would realize that defending =
the status quo=C2=A0<em style=3D"box-sizing:border-box">is</em>=C2=A0an age=
nda, and arguably not a very defensible one at that. So they push him away.=
</font></p><h3 style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:27px 0=
px 17px;font-size:22px;line-height:30px"><font color=3D"#000000">They misse=
d a helluva story</font></h3><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0=
px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#000000">Consider what Bernie Sanders=
 accomplished =E2=80=94 as cribbed from=C2=A0<a href=3D"https://www.thenati=
on.com/article/politics/endorsement-2020-bernie-sanders/" style=3D"box-sizi=
ng:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" targe=
t=3D"_blank">The Nation=E2=80=99s endorsement</a>:</font></p><ul style=3D"b=
ox-sizing:border-box;padding:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><li style=3D"box-sizin=
g:border-box;line-height:24px;margin-left:21px"><font color=3D"#000000">He =
=E2=80=9Cdemonstrated that it is possible to wage a competitive campaign fo=
r the presidency without relying on wealthy donors, corporate funders, or s=
ecretive PAC money.=E2=80=9D</font></li><li style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;=
line-height:24px;margin-left:21px"><font color=3D"#000000">He brought about=
 =E2=80=9Cthe greatest leftward shift in the political discourse since Fran=
klin Delano Roosevelt=E2=80=99s second term=E2=80=94putting not just Medica=
re for All but also the Green New Deal, free public higher education, fair =
taxation, cancellation of student debt, housing as a human right, universal=
 free child care, and an unwavering critique of the billionaire class firml=
y onto the political agenda.=E2=80=9D</font></li><li style=3D"box-sizing:bo=
rder-box;line-height:24px;margin-left:21px"><font color=3D"#000000">He forg=
ed =E2=80=9Ca movement campaign that expands our understanding of what can =
be achieved in the electoral arena and that invites us to imagine that gove=
rnment of, by, and for the people might actually be possible.=E2=80=9D</fon=
t></li></ul><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:=
26px"><font color=3D"#000000">But you wouldn=E2=80=99t have gotten a partic=
ularly good sense of that reading the mainstream media.</font></p><p style=
=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D=
"#000000"><a href=3D"https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/bernie-sanders-trump-=
2020-presidential-media-coverage-20200225.html" style=3D"box-sizing:border-=
box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" target=3D"_blan=
k">Will Bunch</a>, the stand-out national columnist for the Philadelphia In=
quirer, wrote last month:</font></p><blockquote style=3D"box-sizing:border-=
box;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(238,238,238);border-top:1px solid rgb(=
204,204,204);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);margin:40px 34.7969px=
 38px;background-repeat:no-repeat;border-left:none;font-style:italic"><p st=
yle=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:1=
.74;font-style:normal;margin-left:30px;padding:15px"><font color=3D"#000000=
">Bernie=E2=80=99s rise =E2=80=94 and the everyday people fueling it, from =
college students to first-time Latinx voters to fed-up warehouse workers an=
d Uber drivers =E2=80=94 is a hell of story. It=E2=80=99s just not the stor=
y the elite mainstream media =E2=80=94 the dominant cable outlets and natio=
nal newspapers that are largely led by Baby Boomers (full disclosure: my ow=
n generation) and which employ the now aging veterans of their favorite cam=
paigns as anchors and pundits =E2=80=94 wants to tell.</font></p></blockquo=
te><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><fo=
nt color=3D"#000000">Indeed, they seem unfamiliar =E2=80=94 even immune =E2=
=80=94 to what=E2=80=99s driving Sanders=E2=80=99s movement, which Bunch id=
entified this way:</font></p><blockquote style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;pad=
ding:0px;background-color:rgb(238,238,238);border-top:1px solid rgb(204,204=
,204);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);margin:40px 34.7969px 38px;b=
ackground-repeat:no-repeat;border-left:none;font-style:italic"><p style=3D"=
box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:1.74;fon=
t-style:normal;margin-left:30px;padding:15px"><font color=3D"#000000">The=
=C2=A0<a href=3D"https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/attytood/affordability=
-crisis-2020-election-college-debt-housing-20200220.html" style=3D"box-sizi=
ng:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" targe=
t=3D"_blank">sense of fundamental unfairness=C2=A0</a>in this country =E2=
=80=94 epitomized not just by the unhoused sleeping on car seats in a suppo=
sed =E2=80=9Cboomtown,=E2=80=9D but also by staggering college debt, medica=
l bankruptcies, and a lack of child care =E2=80=94 is fueling a political r=
evolution that has put Sanders on a White House trajectory.</font></p></blo=
ckquote><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px=
"><font color=3D"#000000">And, as Bunch points out, those elite journalists=
 have made very little effort to understand any of this =E2=80=93 say, by i=
nterviewing regular, struggling Americans:</font></p><blockquote style=3D"b=
ox-sizing:border-box;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(238,238,238);border-t=
op:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);marg=
in:40px 34.7969px 38px;background-repeat:no-repeat;border-left:none;font-st=
yle:italic"><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:=
0px;line-height:1.74;font-style:normal;margin-left:30px;padding:15px"><font=
 color=3D"#000000">The elites who populate the highest levels of media pund=
itry, run the Democratic Party, or get paid ridiculous sums to design=C2=A0=
<a href=3D"https://theintercept.com/2020/02/04/iowa-caucus-app-shadow-acron=
ym/" style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decor=
ation-line:none" target=3D"_blank">nonworking apps=C2=A0</a>or buy off Inst=
agram meme-makers to=C2=A0<a href=3D"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/sty=
le/michael-bloomberg-memes-jerry-media.html" style=3D"box-sizing:border-box=
;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" target=3D"_blank">=
pretend that Bloomberg is cool</a>=C2=A0still don=E2=80=99t have time to ta=
lk to everyday voters about why they are so angry. They are instead busy se=
arching for a messiah that will let them go back to their Sunday morning mi=
mosas without worrying about a president who might start a nuclear war with=
 a tweet. They are missing the real revolution =E2=80=94 again!</font></p><=
/blockquote><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:=
26px"><font color=3D"#000000"><a href=3D"https://www.cjr.org/first_person/o=
ne-way-sanders-is-the-new-trump.php" style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;backgro=
und-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" target=3D"_blank">Kyle Pop=
e</a>, the editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, concluded the same thi=
ng:</font></p><blockquote style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px;backgr=
ound-color:rgb(238,238,238);border-top:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);border-bo=
ttom:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);margin:40px 34.7969px 38px;background-repea=
t:no-repeat;border-left:none;font-style:italic"><p style=3D"box-sizing:bord=
er-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:1.74;font-style:normal;=
margin-left:30px;padding:15px"><font color=3D"#000000">Once again, the echo=
 chamber of the political reporting class is forcing it to miss a story as =
it materializes around them. So embedded are they in the status quo, and so=
 determined to defend it, that they are treating the rise of Sanders as a p=
ersonal affront. And indeed it is. Theirs is precisely the worldview Sander=
s is raging against. It is the same sneering, dismissive approach to covera=
ge that we saw applied to Trump in 2016.</font></p></blockquote><p style=3D=
"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#0=
00000">Washington Post media writer=C2=A0<a href=3D"https://www.washingtonp=
ost.com/lifestyle/style/the-media-keep-falling-in-love--with-anybody-but-be=
rnie-sanders/2020/02/12/0f55cc12-4d9c-11ea-bf44-f5043eb3918a_story.html" st=
yle=3D"box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-l=
ine:none" target=3D"_blank">Margaret Sullivan</a>=C2=A0traced the negativit=
y toward Sanders to two sources:</font></p><blockquote style=3D"box-sizing:=
border-box;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(238,238,238);border-top:1px sol=
id rgb(204,204,204);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);margin:40px 34=
.7969px 38px;background-repeat:no-repeat;border-left:none;font-style:italic=
"><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-h=
eight:1.74;font-style:normal;margin-left:30px;padding:15px"><font color=3D"=
#000000">The subtext behind much of the disdain is a partly a deep-seated s=
entiment that Sanders, if nominated, has little chance of winning the gener=
al election. But it=E2=80=99s also partly =E2=80=94 and more insidiously =
=E2=80=94 that many journalists don=E2=80=99t identify easily with Sanders =
in the same way they do with, say, Warren or O=E2=80=99Rourke or Buttigieg.=
</font></p></blockquote><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;ma=
rgin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#000000">The first part is arguably more d=
isturbing than the second. It=E2=80=99s bad enough for political journalist=
s to allow personal feelings to affect their news judgement. But it=E2=80=
=99s even worse for them to be writing with partisan considerations uppermo=
st in mind.</font></p><h3 style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;ma=
rgin:27px 0px 17px;font-size:22px;line-height:30px"><font color=3D"#000000"=
>Equating Sanders and Trump</font></h3><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;ma=
rgin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#000000">NYU professor and =
media critic Jay Rosen has written extensively about the political journali=
sm profession=E2=80=99s devotion to the =E2=80=9C<a href=3D"https://pressth=
ink.org/2010/11/the-view-from-nowhere-questions-and-answers/" style=3D"box-=
sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" t=
arget=3D"_blank">view from nowhere</a>=E2=80=9D (a detachment that prohibit=
s taking sides on political issues, especially affirmatively) and =E2=80=9C=
<a href=3D"https://pressthink.org/2011/08/why-political-coverage-is-broken/=
#p18" style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-deco=
ration-line:none" target=3D"_blank">savviness</a>=E2=80=9D (the need to fee=
l above it all). The view from nowhere precludes elite political journalist=
s from even hinting that Sanders=E2=80=99s strongly-held views could actual=
ly be valid. And their desire to appear savvy translates into contempt.</fo=
nt></p><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"=
><font color=3D"#000000">Political journalists are also deeply conditioned =
to find balance between the political parties. As=C2=A0<a href=3D"https://c=
rooked.com/articles/sanders-trump-emails-2016/" style=3D"box-sizing:border-=
box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" target=3D"_blan=
k">Brian Beutler</a>=C2=A0wrote for Crooked:</font></p><blockquote style=3D=
"box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(238,238,238);border=
-top:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);ma=
rgin:40px 34.7969px 38px;background-repeat:no-repeat;border-left:none;font-=
style:italic"><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-botto=
m:0px;line-height:1.74;font-style:normal;margin-left:30px;padding:15px"><fo=
nt color=3D"#000000">Political journalists face strong incentives to portra=
y the two major parties as roughly similar moral and ethical entities that =
happen to share different philosophical values.</font></p></blockquote><p s=
tyle=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font colo=
r=3D"#000000">How does that play out with Sanders?</font></p><blockquote st=
yle=3D"box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(238,238,238);=
border-top:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(204,204,2=
04);margin:40px 34.7969px 38px;background-repeat:no-repeat;border-left:none=
;font-style:italic"><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin=
-bottom:0px;line-height:1.74;font-style:normal;margin-left:30px;padding:15p=
x"><font color=3D"#000000">Sanders=E2=80=99s candidacy comes as an enormous=
 relief to practitioners of this kind of journalism. As the most left-wing =
member of the Senate, and perhaps of the whole Congress, he allows politica=
l journalists to fall back on platitudes about the parties catering to thei=
r extremes, without examining the content of their agendas or their politic=
al styles.</font></p></blockquote><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-=
top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#000000">The quintessential bypr=
oduct of this journalistic dysfunction is the news article likening Sanders=
 to Trump.=C2=A0<a href=3D"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/=
02/two-populist-movements-sanders-trump/?arc404=3Dtrue" style=3D"box-sizing=
:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" target=
=3D"_blank">Sean Sullivan and Robert Costa</a>=C2=A0provided a recent examp=
le of the species in the Washington Post, writing:</font></p><blockquote st=
yle=3D"box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(238,238,238);=
border-top:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(204,204,2=
04);margin:40px 34.7969px 38px;background-repeat:no-repeat;border-left:none=
;font-style:italic"><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin=
-bottom:0px;line-height:1.74;font-style:normal;margin-left:30px;padding:15p=
x"><font color=3D"#000000">Four years after Trump seized control of the Rep=
ublican Party with a right-wing populist movement, a new populist crusade h=
as risen on the left, fueled similarly by grievance and anxiety and powered=
 by Sanders=E2=80=99s remarkable drive to dispatch Trump from the White Hou=
se.</font></p><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-botto=
m:0px;line-height:1.74;font-style:normal;margin-left:30px;padding:15px"><fo=
nt color=3D"#000000">Each is powered by a disdain for elites they perceive =
as having flourished while other Americans suffered, a rejection of the est=
ablishment and the figures who have controlled it, and a contempt for the i=
nstitutions that over the decades have blunted, as they see it, the success=
 of efforts like theirs.</font></p></blockquote><p style=3D"box-sizing:bord=
er-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#000000">Creating =
any kind of moral equivalence between Trump and Sanders is grotesque. An ar=
guably inapt description of both as =E2=80=9Cpopulist=E2=80=9D aside, there=
 is simply no equivalence when it comes to sincerity, honesty, and whether =
the candidates appeal to people=E2=80=99s better or worse natures.</font></=
p><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><fon=
t color=3D"#000000">But it=E2=80=99s the logical extension of the elite pol=
itical media=E2=80=99s tremendous aversion to Sanders.</font></p><h3 style=
=3D"box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:27px 0px 17px;font-size:22=
px;line-height:30px"><font color=3D"#000000">Bernie=E2=80=99s scolding</fon=
t></h3><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"=
><font color=3D"#000000">It=E2=80=99s not just that Sanders=E2=80=99s polic=
ies are interpreted by many elite journalists as scolding. There=E2=80=99s =
also the actual scolding.</font></p><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margi=
n-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#000000"><a href=3D"https://ww=
w.cjr.org/opinion/bernie-sanders-media-silicon-valley.php" style=3D"box-siz=
ing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" targ=
et=3D"_blank">In an article for CJR</a>, Sanders shared a blistering critiq=
ue of modern political journalists, even going so far as using the words of=
 a legendary newsman against them:</font></p><blockquote style=3D"box-sizin=
g:border-box;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(238,238,238);border-top:1px s=
olid rgb(204,204,204);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);margin:40px =
34.7969px 38px;background-repeat:no-repeat;border-left:none;font-style:ital=
ic"><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line=
-height:1.74;font-style:normal;margin-left:30px;padding:15px"><font color=
=3D"#000000">Real journalism is different from the gossip, punditry, and cl=
ickbait that dominates today=E2=80=99s news. Real journalism, in the words =
of=C2=A0<a href=3D"https://www.bartleby.com/73/1249.html" style=3D"box-sizi=
ng:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" targe=
t=3D"_blank">Joseph Pulitzer</a>, is the painstaking reporting that will =
=E2=80=9Cfight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corrupt=
ion, [and] always fight demagogues.=E2=80=9D Pulitzer said that journalism =
must always =E2=80=9Coppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never=
 lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, =
never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically indepen=
dent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or p=
redatory poverty.=E2=80=9D</font></p></blockquote><p style=3D"box-sizing:bo=
rder-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#000000">Sanders=
 insulted the very people who talk about him on TV:</font></p><blockquote s=
tyle=3D"box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(238,238,238)=
;border-top:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(204,204,=
204);margin:40px 34.7969px 38px;background-repeat:no-repeat;border-left:non=
e;font-style:italic"><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margi=
n-bottom:0px;line-height:1.74;font-style:normal;margin-left:30px;padding:15=
px"><font color=3D"#000000">At precisely the moment when we need more repor=
ters covering the healthcare crisis, the climate emergency, and economic in=
equality, we have television pundits paid tens of millions of dollars to po=
ntificate about frivolous political gossip, as local news outlets are evisc=
erated.</font></p></blockquote><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top=
:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#000000">And he accused the biggest=
 employers of political journalists of corruption:</font></p><blockquote st=
yle=3D"box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(238,238,238);=
border-top:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(204,204,2=
04);margin:40px 34.7969px 38px;background-repeat:no-repeat;border-left:none=
;font-style:italic"><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin=
-bottom:0px;line-height:1.74;font-style:normal;margin-left:30px;padding:15p=
x"><font color=3D"#000000">TV networks that rely on<a href=3D"https://www.n=
ytimes.com/2019/05/08/us/politics/drug-prices-tv-advertisements.html" style=
=3D"box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line=
:none" target=3D"_blank">=C2=A0$4.5 billion a year</a>=C2=A0of pharmaceutic=
al ads may be thrilled to sugarcoat our current dysfunctional health care s=
ystem=E2=80=94but they will never provide a consistently fair hearing for s=
omething like Medicare for All, even though=C2=A0<a href=3D"https://thehill=
.com/hilltv/what-americas-thinking/412545-70-percent-of-americans-support-m=
edicare-for-all-health-care" style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;background-colo=
r:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" target=3D"_blank">polls</a>=C2=A0s=
how that a majority of Americans support such a proposal.</font></p><p styl=
e=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;line-height:1.7=
4;font-style:normal;margin-left:30px;padding:15px"><font color=3D"#000000">=
Corporate media organizations<a href=3D"https://www.mediamatters.org/washin=
gton-post/study-cnn-viewers-see-far-more-fossil-fuel-advertising-climate-ch=
ange-reporting?redirect_source=3D/research/2016/04/25/study-cnn-viewers-see=
-far-more-fossil-fuel-advertising-climate-change-reporting/209985" style=3D=
"box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:no=
ne" target=3D"_blank">=C2=A0sponsored</a>=C2=A0<a href=3D"https://www.thena=
tion.com/article/big-oil-pr-fossil-fuel-lobby-herb-schmertz/" style=3D"box-=
sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" t=
arget=3D"_blank">by fossil fuel industry ads</a>=C2=A0may gladly provide a =
platform for guests who insist that our current oligarchic economy is just =
great, but as=C2=A0<a href=3D"https://www.citizen.org/news/major-media-comm=
it-errors-of-omission-on-climate-change/" style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;ba=
ckground-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none" target=3D"_blank">stu=
dies show</a>, the same outlets often downplay or<a href=3D"https://www.cit=
izen.org/sites/default/files/public-citizen-carbon-omission-extreme-weather=
-2018.pdf" style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;text=
-decoration-line:none" target=3D"_blank">=C2=A0omit coverage of the climate=
 crisis</a>=C2=A0that those advertisers are helping create.</font></p></blo=
ckquote><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px=
"><font color=3D"#000000">Sanders is right about every bit of that, and mos=
t political journalists know it.</font></p><p style=3D"box-sizing:border-bo=
x;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:26px"><font color=3D"#000000">But they=C2=A0=
<em style=3D"box-sizing:border-box">really</em>=C2=A0don=E2=80=99t like it =
being thrown in their faces.</font></p></div></div></div>

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