Fear of Sanders Presidency: How the silly elite media creates phony stories to dodge real issues

[merrily]

Saturday, Sep 26, 2015 09:30 AM EST
Fear of a Bernie Sanders presidency: How the silly elite media creates phony stories to dodge real issues

Stop pretending Jerry Brown is going to run. Dumb horserace journalism is an attempt to not cover real issues
Paul Rosenberg


(Omitted intro to the effect that Michael Kinsley of Vanity Fair and Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post are "covering" the possibility that Jerry Brown might enter the race, which according to the author of this Salon article, Paul Rosenberg, is bull puckies.)

So, it’s clear that this is not about Jerry Brown actually contemplating a presidential run. It’s about the idea of him doing so, and how that idea functions in the establishment media world.

The most obvious way it functions I’ve already mentioned: as a distraction from covering Bernie Sanders, who actually is running for president, and raising issues the establishment media would rather ignore, with a degree of specificity they’re particularly uncomfortable with. The fact that he’s proving wildly popular only makes their antipathy even worse. That’s why they’re grasping at straws like the totally unrelated comments Brown made above.

.............

The first point Kinsley makes is a good one—his best, actually: “He’s had more gubernatorial experience than anyone else in the country, and he’s had it in the largest state.” Senators rarely move directly to the White House, governors do it much more often. So this is a solid argument to be making—if only Brown’s age weren’t a concern. But we should also look at the content of that record. After all, the GOP has all kinds of governors (and ex-governors) competing, and their records have been anything but stellar. Bush did manage high GDP growth—but as I’ve noted before, it’s less impressive on a per capita basis: “Florida’s per-capita GDP grew 19.8 percent over Bush’s two terms (2.5 percent per year), compared to 16.4 percent nationwide (2.1 percent annually), and was due to a housing bubble, which later went bust.” His record is mediocre at best. Without his family money, connections and name, he’d be unremarkable. So, in contrast, how did Brown do in the way of a governing record?

Much more at http://www.salon.com/2015/09/26/fear_of_a_bernie_sanders_presidency_how_the_silly_elite_media_creates_phony_stories_to_dodge_real_issues/


The irony here--which I assume is wholly unintentional--is that Rosenberg's articles basically assesses Brown's record, as though Brown were indeed contemplating entering the race. Seemed to me more as though Rosenberg was grinding an axe about Brown, rather than grinding an axe about how media invents fake stories to avoid covering Sanders. So, Rosenberg sort of does the same thing of which he accuses Kinsley and Cillizza. Still, the admission from a member of the Democratic media that the Democratic media does this kind of thing is significant, IMO.

I don't know a lot about Kinsley, but am disappointed in Vanity Far. No disappointment about WAPO: we all have known WAPO's deal since it was bought out. And Cillizza is, IMO, a hack.

[Demeter]

1. The refusal to grant Bernie serious coverage has gone beyond ignorance into censorship

Can they be so afraid of a little old man? Evidently so. he's turned their whole manufactured world-view propaganda on its ear.

Bernie is likely to bring a bright flashlight of reality into the picture. He can't move mountains, not on his own...but he can move the public, which will move those mountains they've been stymied by for decades. And therein lies the threat.

[merrily]

2. Thanks. I don't think it was ever ignorance.

I have a diner rule: http://www.democraticunderground.com/128037667


Until Bernie, many knew something was wrong, but they did not know exactly what or what to do about it.

Bernie gives broad hints, often citing 30 years as the pivotal time period. (The DLC incorporated in 1985.) I wish he would elaborate more because, to this day, most Democrats, most Americans, don't know what hit them. However, Sanders has at least has identified the problems for the public, the extent of ghd, the imminent danger of them, and many of the solutions.

[FloridaBlues]

3. You really think the elite media is afraid of sanders? Really

[merrily]

4. I did not write the OP article or its headline. Do you have a substantive point to make?

Also, are you aware that this is a group for people who support Bernie Sanders' defeating other primary candidates, including the one you favor?

[Ed Suspicious]

5. Nope. And that is the point. The media is afraid of any candidate who might espouse Bernie's

message. What really scares the crap out of them is that they have so little with which to try to sink his message when the people start to limit their cash cow in the form of fixing through constitutional amendment this "disastrous Citizens United decision."

We love Bernie, and the fact that he is a credible arbiter. What we love even more is his idea. The idea that people can actually call bullshit on shitty media and shitty government.

[dae]

6. K&R n/t

[SoapBox]

7. And of course...MSNBC is simply breathless about...

Rump!

Any mention of Bernie at U. of Chicago...nada.

[merrily]

8. Bernie's supporters need to start calling MSNBC out on this kind of thing.