My Take on Chuck Todd asking if Bernie apologized to BLM on Meet the Press

[daredtowork]

Some Bernie supporters are already in ignore mode over this, but they shouldn't be: this is already a thing on Black Twitter.

Rather, take a look at this clip, and take a strong stance on what a trap this was:

http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/full-conversation--bernie-sanders-on-his-campaign--healthcare--biden-506194499603

Sorry I can't figure out how to embed the video. I can already see how it's going to be twisted by all parties involved. BLM will see this as indicative of Bernie's character and/or policy. Bernie supporters will glean from their reactions further opinions on BLM. Hillary's staff is kicking back, eating popcorn.

Bernie is not apologizing because he feels he has nothing to apologize for. And he has never pursued BLM for an apology despite the fact all his supporters have been clamoring for one.

Remember that high school student that put up a fake BLM Seattle page with an apology then took it down? BLM had nothing to apologize for, right? The "staffer" quoted by Buzzfeed is the equivalent of that high school student and Chuck Todd used that to put Bernie on the spot.

Bernie immediately made it clear that he was addressing BLM's issues, including criminal justice.

Where I think he will probably get skewered is where he said he will be working with "all groups": this is Bernie's emphasis on equality - women's rights, lgbt rights, immigration issues - he sees these all as a product of white (patriarchal) supremacy. However, some BLM members are probably going to come at him with "our issues have been buried by equality". I hope people will remember that this was a trap by Chuck Todd and try to imagine how they would do if put in the same position.

That Chuck Todd is a weasel that is doing the equivalent of The National Enquirer on TV.

I can't imagine him doing the same thing to Hillary on "All Lives Matter".

[Vinca]

1. Chuck should have asked if BLM had apologized to Bernie.

[TDale313]

2. I doubt Bernie would agree.

[daredtowork]

6. Agreed: that would escalate

And BLM shouldn't have apologized. Those who think they should have don't understand BLM yet.

[Vinca]

14. That's why Bernie is a much better person than I am.

[MADem]

10. Bernie should have asked when Chuck was going to apologize to HIM for conducting gotcha/sandbag

interviews of Democratic candidates while coddling Trump like a poached egg!

[TDale313]

16. Now that woulda been good

[TDale313]

3. We're being pitted against each other...

And it's working, and it sucks. The choice between supporting Bernie and supporting Black Lives Matter- as a group or a concept- is a false choice. We can do both.

[daredtowork]

7. Yep, that was a very clever attack on the Sanders campaign.

Curious about why Buzzfeed did it actually.

Perhaps it was a Hillary donation to their web site. It's hard to keep afloat these days.

[MADem]

11. Do you have any proof to back up that "divide and conquer" claim?

Buzzfeed doesn't "take donations." It's not a blog. It's not a charity. It's a big, BIG business. And all Buzzfeed did was report the truth--the Sanders campaign did issue an apology. The problem was that Sanders didn't know about it, and Chuck Todd was able to make something of that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed is an American internet news media company. It describes itself as the "social news and entertainment company . . . redefining online advertising with its social, content-driven publishing technology . . . provides the most shareable breaking news."[3] BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 in New York City as a viral lab by Jonah Peretti, the company has grown into a global[4] media and technology company providing coverage on a variety of topics including politics, DIY, animals and business. In late 2011, Ben Smith of Politico was hired as Editor-in-Chief, in a move to expand the site into serious journalism, long-form and reportage while maintaining its popular fun and entertainment-oriented content.[5]

Funding.
In August 2014, BuzzFeed raised $50 million from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, more than doubling previous rounds of funding.[6] The site was reportedly valued at around $850 million by Andreessen Horowitz.[6] BuzzFeed generates its advertising revenue through native advertising that matches its own editorial content, and does not rely on banner ads.[7]


....

Content[edit]
BuzzFeed produces daily content, in which the work of staff reporters, contributors, syndicated cartoon artists, and its community are featured. Popular formats on the website include lists and quizzes. Whereas BuzzFeed was initially focused exclusively on such viral content, according to the New York Times "it added more traditional content, building a track record for delivering breaking news and deeply reported articles" in the years up to 2014.[10] In that year, BuzzFeed deleted over 4000 early posts, "apparently because, as time passed, they looked stupider and stupider", as observed by The New Yorker.[11]
The site’s content is divided into 28 sections: News, Buzz, Life, Entertainment, Quizzes, Videos, Animals, Beauty, Books, Business, Big Stories, Celebrity, DIY, Food, Geeky, Gif Feed, Ideas, LGBT, Music, Parents, Politics, Rewind, Sports, Style, Tech, Travel, Weekend, and World.[12]
BuzzFeed consistently ranked at the top of NewsWhip's "Facebook Publisher Rankings" from December 2013 to April 2014, until The Huffington Post entered the position.[13][14][15][/div

There was no need to say that. I support Clinton and I think what Chuck Todd did was a cheap shot. He's obviously trying to fracture supporters of candidates vying for the Democratic nomination. Don't be so eager to help him.

[99th_Monkey]

8. Not only can we, we already ARE

but no one seems to notice or care what Bernie has done to address
issues important to BLM, by embracing their concerns in a number of
ways.

this ^ is very telling -- how Bernie's upgraded and sharpened platform
on racism and fixing our broken criminal justice system, and hiring
BLM organizer Symone Sanders has received no recognition from BLM
or the media. They apparently don't even care. Very odd.

[TDale313]

12. The media had no interest in bridging any perceived divide...

And as for BLM, to be fair, their goal is to bring attention to these issues and push these candidates, and I think that's a worthy goal and that they've been effective. And in the end, I think this had been good for Bernie's campaign. But I don't really expect BLM to say "Well done, problem solved". Cause it's not- there are huge issues to address. And I have to admit, like it or not, they're drawing attention by showing up at Sanders' events- more so than if they targeted more usual suspects. So that's a good.

[99th_Monkey]

15. I totally agree. I don't expect a "well done" from BLM either

Sorry if it seemed I was saying that. As you point out, supporting candidates
is not their priority, and for very good reasons.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

4. Compare Chuckie's coddling of Trump

earlier on that same NFL show. He asked DT about abortion, but not about how his national anti-abortion legislation would handle a situation like the 10-year-old rape victim in the news from Paraguay. She became pregnant and church and state forced her to give birth. If Todd had asked him about the Paraguayan girl, maybe Trump would have dissatisfied many of his supporters, one way or another.

[99th_Monkey]

5. Nobody seems to care what Hillary's position on BLM is, or on racism for that matter.

Aside from a few kid-glove gestures by BLM (to 'confront' Clinton, with an advance phone call,
behind closed doors blocking ANY press coverage of their meeting, and raising a token ruckus
at the end of a Jeb Bush event) this whole controversy is being focused 98% on Bernie like a laser
beam.
And you're exactly right, Team Hillary is LOVING this, "kicking back with their popcorn"

I go back & forth on this, because 1) I support BLM's legitimate rage, 2) so-what if Bernie's
campaign is inconvenienced some for BLM to make their point, 3) maybe Bernie was initially
targeted simply because he was low-hanging fruit i.e. the most accessible and popular (most
press coverage for BLM), 4) I'm grateful Bernie responded so positively by upscaling his platform
on racism & the broken criminal justice system AND hiring Symone Sanders.

What is SO FISHY here is how it doesn't matter WHAT Bernie does to address BLM's concerns,
it's mostly or completely ignored by both the media AND by his BLM detractors .. like he'd
done nothing at all.

All in all, I'm confident Bernie's weathering this just fine, because he's the real deal, has NOTHING
to hide or apologize for , and I'm glad he didn't take Todd's bait. He did the right thing, stayed
on message and addressed the issues he cares deeply about, including BLM's issues. But I'm
not holding my breath waiting for BLM or the media to give Bernie any credit for all that he's
done and is doing to support BLM's issues as HIS issue as well.

[MADem]

9. The Toad is gonna jump. It's what he does. Press The Meat is at a low point--it's like The View

of Sunday talkers.

Chuck TAWD plays gotcha. He's trying to resurrect the racial issues that were starting to be tamped down. I guess he hopes that will bring in viewers?

"The issue that they are raising is a very important issue" (re: #BLM) is what Sanders said. That's the essential takeaway, but it was obscured by the rest of the chaff that was tossed.

I thought we were getting past this. I guess the media is not done with the "framing."

I will say that I think Sanders was terribly inarticulate in that interview, and the "without my knowledge" didn't help either--makes it seem like he's not in control of his staff.

That said, I also think he is SINCERELY trying to improve his profile on issues of race, and Chuck TAWD was trying to sandbag him.

Someone needs to pull Bernie aside and give him a basic lesson on how to handle these guys--you can't be "straightforward" and "forthright" when someone is trying to fuck you over.

I should be sanguine because anything that pulls him down is helpful to my preferred candidate, but I don't like "wins" that are derived from cheating--and what Chuck TAWD did was a cheating, cheap shot.

I suppose the Sanders supporters can take heart in that if he gets the opportunity, he'll fuck over O'Malley and Clinton just as quickly. He's an equal opportunity asshole.

[MuseRider]

13. Perhaps his air of non-concern

is because he is doing what I read earlier that he said, that he had addressed the issues with BLM and is working with them. Why should he get all worked up about this? Is everyone in BLM going to stop giving him a hard time? Nope and they should not. The ONLY way to get anything done anymore is to be loud, in your face and burn the ground behind you. There will be people who are ready for that and will use whoever is there to use. It is not a group that is standing 100% together and it is good that it isn't. Grassroots activist groups always are like this.

I love Bernie and I have confidence he is and will be doing what is needed to help them get what they need. I hate to see him targeted like this but this is how it goes. I see his acting not concerned as another way of telling the Toad to shut the F up with all the rumor mill crap. Maybe it is just me.

[Bluenorthwest]

17. As if Chuck Todd and NBC has been giving proper coverage to racial justice issues, Chuck is the

one who should be held to account, him and his entire outfit and industry. NBC sure as fuck did not have Black Lives Matter reps on panels shows or in for interviews prior to the primary bullshit. If the media had given them the mic, they'd not have to go out and grab the mics of others. And what is he doing to give them a platform other than exploiting their work in his primary season grab for action? Answer is of course absolutely nothing. Not a fucking thing.

[elana i am]

18. the letter in question

Hello all!

My name is Marcus Ferrell, I am a senior staffer for Senator Bernie Sanders presidential bid in 2016.

I am reaching out to you on behalf of our campaign because you are the folks doing the work for Black Lives Matter. I apologize it took our campaign so long to officially reach out. We are hoping to establish a REAL space for REAL dialog between the folks on this email and our campaign. If you guys know of anyone that should be on this email chain and is not, please feel free to forward them this message and my contact information.

As you may or may not know, our campaign and your movement has run across each other on 2 different occasions. We would like to have a more formal interaction with the movement. We wanted to let you know that we hear you, we want to do a better job speaking out on the issues, and as a sitting U.S. Senator, possibly introducing legislation and making a constitutional change. We would like to know what YOU would like to see happen. Would you be willing to have a preliminary conference call to set up a face to face meeting with the Senator in DC? I’d like to get feed back from you to see if that could even be an option.We would like to meet with you within the next month.

We have introduced a Racial Justice platform on our website. Please feel free to take a look at it and tell us where we can improve and strengthen our platform. https://berniesanders.com/issues/racial-justice/.

My contact information is below. Feel free to call, email, direct message me at any time. Thank you for the diligent work for our community. Onward and Upward.

Marcus Ferrell
Southeastern Political Director/African American Outreach Director

i'm not sure what kind of apology people are looking for, but aside from a perfunctory "we're sorry we didn't respond sooner" all there is is a pro forma schmooze mass mail. so the toad was engaging in "gotcha journalism" with something that isn't even there.

[daredtowork]

19. Serious "Gotcha Journalism"

Any consequences when Chuck Todd does that sort of thing.

This is outright misrepresentation with intent to set Bernie against Black Lives Matter.

[jwirr]

20. I'm curious - are we the only social media with this level of in fighting

or are there others that are as bad?

[daredtowork]

21. Hope you don't feel I was being provocative over this

I was actually turning my comment from another thread into an OP - there was already a thread up asking if Bernie had apologized or not. That's what I consider deliberately provocative. This was my effort to head those sorts of threads off at the pass.

[jwirr]

22. No I understand what you were doing - it is just that there is seldom a

thread that does not contain fighting. And I was truly wondering if this is just us or if it is happening every where.