America’s Media: Rather than Cover Issues, It Now Controls Them!
— Initially Published as a Facebook Note on December 22, 2015 (edited)
This was originally written when the Bernie Sanders campaign was getting little to no coverage from corporate media and when the actions of national and state DNC officials, together with key main media sources, colluded in order to elect — select, if you will — Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee.
Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald nails it:
All throughout the Democratic Primary campaign, main media unfairly included super delegate counts (always subject to change as they did during Obama’s campaign) as rock solid into Clinton’s won column. Thus, she was provided an image of invincibility, especially since her favored southern state primaries were positioned for early voting. Use of the super delegates like this was never done before by the media! Was it misleading? You bet!
[8/18/19 UPDATE: The southern Democratic primaries were all scheduled, to Hillary Clinton’s advantage, at the beginning of the 2016 primary election cycle. These states were and remain located in low (unsaturated) media markets where name recognition would matter a lot. Who was Bernie Sanders?
Southern black voters were mostly unfamiliar with the name and history of Sanders, who had marched with Martin Luther King for Civil Rights, and who once was arrested while chained to a black women in Chicago in a battle against housing segregation. The early primary season also saw a media blackout imposed on Bernie Sanders. As the 2016 campaign wore on the Sanders name became better-known.
But it was too late for black voters in the South. After the southern states had already voted, Sanders went on to achieve a 72% favorable rating among black voters.
Main media also, at the behest of the Clinton Campaign, according to Wikileaks exposure, overwhelmingly kept Donald Trump’s name into the public consciousness as Clinton’s political handlers preferred to battle either Trump, Ted Cruz or Ben Carson in the general election. [8/18/19 UPDATE: Wikileaks releases would later prove how the DNC had tagged Trump, Cruz and Carson as “pied piper” candidates to be built up in the media.]
Meanwhile, Sanders got no coverage despite drawing the largest crowds in presidential campaign history at his rallies!
One time, CNN kept its cameras stationed on Trump’s empty podium — waiting for Trump — while, simultaneously, Bernie Sanders was actually delivering his speech to the largest political audience in American history!
So please keep a skeptical eye when reviewing America’s media folks. It is no longer, like in days past, the last resort defender for the citizen. Indeed, America’s main news is slanted. It’s tilted. It’s all meant to support wealthy elite-only candidates who’ll support corporations over people.
This includes all television networks, The NYT, The LA Times, The Washington Post and nearly all others. Wikileaks later exposed how NYT and Washington Post reporters were in collusion, clearing what they wrote with Clinton’s campaign manager before going to publication.
One Politico reporting-editor even stated in a Wikileaks-exposed email that he’d become “a hack” for the Clinton Campaign.
The media now controls issues, rather than covering them.
Meanwhile, televised slant pundits excel presenting wrongful impressions to what’s actually going on. They’ve been dismissive of the Sanders Campaign since the start. For instance, they only mention him in the context of Clinton and rarely ever spotlight Bernie’s full merit, the quality of his thinking and his solutions for our problems.
Who Owns America’s Media:
Too many Republican presidents, together with use of the impeachment of Bill Clinton, have in essence consolidated America’s media into six companies controlling 90 percent of all media. When Reagan took office there were 50 credible media companies.
Indeed, the media would rather control than cover the issues!
Let’s hope the honesty and dogged determination of Bernie Sanders and his supporters enables the decision-makers who control subject-journalism to once again open the gates for fair reporting. Investigative journalist Matt Taibbi sums it up pretty good.
