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

[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.