Americans Get Testy With Media After It Disrupts a Presser on Poverty to Ask About ISIS.

[Orrex]

63. You're not incorrect, but that's the way the media operates

I've heard his dismissal of the question several times, and anyone who's ever seen media coverage of a campaign event must know that they were going to savage him for it. I simply don't believe that his media adviser gave him the thumbs-up on that. Heck, even the fact that they tried to preemptively discourage certain questions gives the clear impression that they don't know how the media works.

The economy is a nightmare for the poor and the former middle class--this is undeniable, but it's a long term problem. Thanks to the media, a large portion of the population sees ISIS as a real and immediate threat, so Sanders' response to ISIS is more real and immediate than his plan for economic justice, however vital and positive it may turn out to be.

He was in a difficult or impossible position; he had to know that the would ask about ISIS, and he should have had a better answer prepared. Yes, this was a minor facet of a larger speech, but no one outside of his current supporters will remember a word of that speech except the part when he got into it with the press. It plays into the perception (however valid or invalid) that he's weak on foreign policy, and it feeds the image that he's a cranky old man. At the very least, that's disastrously poor media management.