The pundit class continues to misunderstand Bernie Sanders - and it shows [View all]

[G_j]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/08/the-pundit-class-continues-to-misunderstand-bernie-sanders-and-it-shows?CMP=share_btn_fb

Nathan Robinson


Sanders returns again and again to issues that matter to ordinary people: healthcare, student debt and climate change – issues which are not a priority for the mainstream media

Tue 8 Oct 2019

A new unofficial Bernie Sanders ad, made by a fan, is making a lot of viewers tear up. It contrasts dismissive and disparaging comments about Bernie from TV pundits with the warmth felt towards him by his supporters across the country. It movingly shows how Sanders inspires people and gives them hope – but also just how insulated the “pundit class” is from the reality of people’s lives.

In the video, commentators from CNN and MSNBC talk about Sanders as a man “yelling at people in the same screechy voice, without smiling, without any kind of personal connection”. He “doesn’t actually smile that much”. Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, thousands of people feel a strong connection to Bernie, because he’s talking about the issues that matter to them: healthcare, student debt, climate change, working conditions. And he smiles quite a bit.

The media not only treat Sanders as a humorless fringe demagogue, but they also understate his popularity. Katie Halper has documented the various ways in which media organizations have subtly fudged the numbers to make Bernie seem less successful than he is, and there is still a narrative that his campaign is failing even as it hauls in giant quantities of small donations from all over the country. Even as he shatters fundraising records there will be stories of him “struggling to attract new supporters, and even keep some of the old ones”.

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