October 9, 2015

What sources do Sanders supporters use?

A post in the Hillary Clinton Group asserted that posts about Sanders "all come from Vermont Newspapers and quite liberal ones" whereas posts about Clinton were to right-wing sources. I hadn't noticed any such thing, and I thought that the writer's opinion reflected confirmation bias, as did the agreement it received in that group.

Lacking the time or energy to do a comprehensive analysis, I went to the Bernie Sanders Group homepage and checked out the first 20 listed posts that had a source. With multiple sources, I used the first, except that I'd never heard of macombpolitics.com and didn't bother to investigate it, so I used the second source from that post.

My breakdown:
* Sanders-ish sources, 5 (pro-Sanders Facebook page, berniepost.com, email from Sanders, pro-Sanders video, Sanders subreddit)
* Other left-wing/progressive, 6 (KPFA {Pacifica radio station}, ActBlue, Young Democrats of Puerto Rico, Rolling Stone, nationofchange.org, The Ed Show)
* MSM/neutral, 8 (San Francisco Chronicle {tweet from reporter}, ontheissues.org, salon.com, New York Times, uspresidentialelectionnews.com, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, MSNBC {Morning Joe}) (MSNBC leans more left than right but Morning Joe is their leading right-wing show so I average it out to neutral for this interview with Sanders conducted by Joe and Mika together)
* Right-wing, 1 (Politico, an article critical of Sanders that was posted for discussion)

In this limited sample, there are no Vermont newspapers. There isn't a blizzard of Clinton attacks from right-wing sources. My own opinion is that such sources shouldn't get either blanket acceptance or blanket dismissal. If an article in the Wall Street Journal presents an analysis of FEC contribution data, it's probably accurate as far as it goes; people on DU are smart enough to note that there may be selection bias in what information was presented. The Wall Street Journal is a far cry from World Net Daily, an outpost of the truly lunatic right.

More generally, it's legitimate for DUers to consider each candidate's general-election prospects. When Clinton supporters bring up "socialism" (as they so often do), I don't think they're red-baiting. Their point is that, if Sanders is the nominee, this will be used to bash him, whether or not we think the attack has merit. Well, what's sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose. People who oppose Clinton can reasonably report on right-wing attacks that may resonate in November.

Clinton supporters, you're the minority here, so you'll be exposed to more negative stuff than will Sanders supporters. Deal with it. Console yourselves with the thought that Chafee, O'Malley, and Webb would love to be getting as much attention, even negative attention, as Clinton is, on DU and nationwide.