When MSNBC legal analyst Mimi Rocah (7/21/19) said that Bernie Sanders “made [her] skin crawl,” though she “can’t even identify for you what exactly it is,” she was just expressing more overtly the anti-Sanders bias that pervades the network.
The hostility is so entrenched, in fact, it seems to have corrupted MSNBC’s mathematical reasoning and created a new system of arithmetic. The cable news network has repeatedly made on-air and online mistakes about Sanders’ polling and other numbers—always to his detriment, and never with any official correction.
Here are some new rules MSNBC seems to follow when it comes to math and Bernie Sanders.
1. 49 < 48
Result: Sanders goes from second to “fourth” place.
MSNBC made a handy graphic for a poll on July 7 that showed 2020 match-ups against Trump among Democratic voters. The list was in descending order of candidates’ polling numbers—except for Bernie Sanders, whose name is placed under Warren’s and Harris’s, though he polls higher than both of them. (If the list is ordered by the margin between the candidate and Trump, Sanders would be in third place, behind Harris.)
2. 5 >7
Result: Sanders goes from second to “third” place.
Lest you think this was an isolated incident, MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki placed Sanders’ name below Warren’s on July 15, when he was “reporting” on a poll put out by the Washington Post and NBC (MSNBC’s parent company.) Once again, the order of the names is descending by poll numbers—except for Bernie Sanders’, which is, once again, placed below where it should be. This time, Sanders is placed below Warren, though he polls higher than she does (both in the percentage who say they would vote for each candidate and the spread over Trump). This same order is used in the online story’s headline (7/14/19), which says, “Trump Trails Biden, Warren and Sanders in New NBC News/Wall Stree Journal Poll.”
MSNBC (7/15/19)
But it gets worse. It was misleading to have Sanders’ name after Warren’s in the graphic, but an absolute error or lie to say Warren was second, which Kornacki, who was talking about a poll conducted by his own company, did. I had to re-watch the video to make sure I wasn’t missing something, but Kornacki does indeed say (at 1:09): “Elizabeth Warren, she’s been running second place, she is running second place on the Democratic side. She leads Trump by 5 points.” Then Kornacki shows the person who is actually in second place and says, “Bernie Sanders, he leads by 7 points.”
3. +5 = -5.
Result: Sanders “loses” ten points.
Meet the Press’s Chuck Todd (5/24/19) showed a graphic claiming that Sanders had gone down 5 points in a Quinnipiac poll. Todd got the absolute value right, he just got the value sign wrong: Sanders didn’t go down by 5 in the poll, he went up by 5 — a 10-point difference.
Quinnipiac (4/30/19)
Quinnipiac (5/21/19)
4. 25 = 28
Result: Sanders goes from first to “second” place.
After an April Monmouth poll showed Sanders polling at 27 percent among non-white voters and Biden polling at 25 percent, Velshe and Ruhle (4/29/19) showed a graphic which somehow added three points to Biden’s numbers, putting him in “first” place.
Monmouth (4/23/19)
5. Less than $200 = 0
Result: Sanders goes from a candidate with one of the best records with female donors to one of the “worst.”
Rachel Maddow on April 29 did a segment (and tweeted) about a study on the gender of campaign donors. Unfortunately, she forgot to say the study she cited only looked at donors who gave $200 or more. After praising Gillibrand for “doing the best in terms of targeting female donors,” Maddow urged her viewers to
look at the other end of the spectrum! Just strikes me as unsustainable. Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg…. Look at them! Both of them are raising twice as much money from male donors as they are from female donors. 66 and 67 percent of your donations are from dudes? Dude!
The same Open Secrets report Maddow was citing explained that its results were skewed: Since
Sanders has the highest amount of money coming from small donors…at 74 percent…[and] generally only donations above $200 are itemized…the gender landscape of small donations are absent.
In fact, according to Sanders’ communications director, 46 percent of the 525,000 people who contributed to Sanders’ campaign during the first quarter were women. “It is virtually certain,” she tweeted, “that more women have donated to our campaign than any other.”
Rachel Maddow: You’re a Rhodes scholar, have a nightly news show, earn $7 million a year, and missed or failed to disclose that the study only looked at wealthier dudes and dudettes? Dude!
6. 23 minutes = 5 minutes
Result: Sanders goes from highlighting his opposition to racism and sexism to “not mentioning” them.
In March, MSNBC’s Alex Whit hosted a panel to discuss Bernie Sanders’ March 2 campaign kickoff speech. Panelist and MSNBC political analyst Zerlina Maxwell said: “I clocked it. He [Bernie Sanders] did not mention race or gender until 23 minutes into the speech.”
As Sanders surrogates, journalists, organizers, activists and people on Twitter pointed out, Sanders most definitely mentioned race and gender five minutes into his speech, when he said “the underlying principles of our government” will “not be racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and religious bigotry.” Sanders starts his speech 31 seconds after he gets on stage so, to be charitable to his critics, he doesn’t mention gender or race until 5:31.
Maxwell, a former Hillary Clinton staffer, though MSNBC didn’t mention that when they introduced her, did delete a tweet which had said, “OK 23 minutes in Bernie finally mentions race and gender.” But she was far from contrite:
I’ve rewatched since yesterday and while I can acknowledge that I missed the passing line at 6 minutes I stand by my point since talking about criminal justice is not the same thing as talking about race and gender and if you don’t get why Bernie won’t win….again.
Sanders spoke about race and gender outside of the context of criminal justice, which anyone who watched or rewatched the speech would know. But accuracy seems not to be the point so much as it is putting down a candidate who makes your “skin crawl,” for reasons that you can’t quite explain. Citizens, including the ones MSNBC claims to speak for, deserve better.
You can contact MSNBC by calling 212-664-4444, or via Twitter: @MSNBC. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your message in the comments thread of this post.
You can listen to Halper talk to pollster and Sanders advisor Jim Zogby about the misuse of polls on her podcast here:
Correction: An earlier version of this piece misstated the date of Bernie Sanders’ campaign launch.
This fudge has a distinctly fetid taste and aroma
MSNBC appears to prefer neoliberal cockroaches who are just Republicans seeking a third-way to move the nation right. Kansas was the final nail in that trickle-down coffin; someone needs to bring them the news.
Now let’s bury all the neolibs and media and Republicans who are digging up St. Ronnie and the Chicago school of economic failure.
There’s a reason MSNBC (I call them MSDNC) does this, and that’s because Comcast owns NBC. Comcast has had two major legislative goals as a corporation: lower tax rates and the end of Net Neutrality. They got both from Donald Trump.
The last thing Comcast wants is President Bernie Sanders. If the race is between another Wall Street Dem and Trump, they win or win BIG again.
Remember, before his death Ed Schultz said he was fired from MSNBC for supporting Bernie Sanders.
~
You have the audacity to name this website “Fair.org”!? Who cares what Mimi says!? Are all Bernie supporters that fragile!?
Bernie has a direct competitor named Elizabeth Warren! The polls aren’t MSNBC’s polls, they come from everywhere! So please don’t whine or put out false information about your candidate AGAIN!
The fact is, Bernie has lost a ton of supporters in favor of Elizabeth Warren et al! Joe Biden has a block of African American voters and frankly Hillary supporters backing him!
Bernie has decided he doesn’t need to win over Hillary supporters so that’s his loss! After his comment about it at the women’s forum, he’s never getting her supporters to back him! Talk about a hypocrite!!
Did you even read the article?
@Clark Kent:
“Bernie has a direct competitor named Elizabeth Warren!”
Well, that’s what the NY Times and MSNBC havw told you for the last few months.
However, their proposals are significantly different. And Warren is a long time republican, who beyond acknowledging that fact, basically refuses to talk about her decades as a republican.
Warren’s refusal to discuss this issue in her past is especially ugly because as a young single mother in the 1970s she very much benefited from things like inexpensive public college and grad school, and a higher in real terms minimum wage. So though she claims the last republican nominee for the presidency she voted for was Ford in 1976 (having voted for McGovern in ’72 and Carter in 1980) she was in a political party fundamentally opposed to inexpensive public college and the minimum wage.
I voted for Hillary and I’m voting for Bernie
And actually… according to 538’s analysis, Warren’s gains have been at Biden’s and O’Rourke’s expense, not Sanders’. Most Warren voters’ second choice is Harris, and most Biden voters’ second choice is — get this — Biden. Something tells me that last bit will change once those voters hear more from Warren, but we’ll see.
PUMAs gonna PUMA.
He either didn’t read the article, has a problem with reading comprehension, or can’t count.
He uses MSNBC non-math math.
I used to call it “MSNSA”, but I guess it’s the same thing.
I can no longer trust nor believe in major news media regarding their polls, but even worse, I cannot trust in the electronic privately owned voting machines either . GIVE us Paper, ballots, or you give us a failed democratic republic.
Thanks to Halper and FAIR for this outstanding piece of reportage / analysis. Un-freakin’-believable.
And we accuse Trump of inventing his own reality.
Not to mention blaming Russia for interfering in our elections. They interfere and mis-inform every day.
Nice try Vlad but Russia most certainly did interfere
Thanks Katie. Really appreciate what you and fair are doing to expose media bias and agenda. Keep it up
You are an awesome journalist. Not many of those around anymore.
Mimi rocah should be fired for her discriminatory Behavior! The rest of the MSNBC crew should be sanctioned for their bias! This is unexcusable!
Agreed..but the best punishment for them will be a Sanders primary victory..Sanders is probably the strongest of all the demo-rat candidate -as evidenced by the ruling class hysteria on dsip[lay ion their openly and unapologetically dishonest coverage of Sanders .
You have to start at the top. Remember that Ed Schultz was fired for covering the launch of the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign.
Thank you for bring this to my attention.I will call them tomorrow.
How can we make our views known to msnbc?
I support Bernie Sanders & also Elizabeth Warren, because I don’t see corporate money backing them.
Always thought of Mimi Rocah as intelligent and wise…..What would possess her to make such a gross comment about Bernie? Totally inappropriate and unprofessional.
The network has been diminished in my view, and this is a topic of discussion among my friends and family members.
Look again at Warren. Warren has a history of accepting corporate money and has pledged to accept it IF she wins the nomination. She is *only* not accepting it now to appear like she won’t owe favors to these corporations.
I would rethink Warren because she says she would wait till after the primaries to take big donors but its been reported that she already accepted big money donations! I wish she would refuse it altogether like Bernie. She is also starting gain favor with mainstream media which makes me nervous. I fear she has already sold out and will not keep most of her promises.
Everyone seems to forget that Warren is a FORMER Republican who still supports Reagan’s trickle-down nonsense and the endless wars. Warren has a better chance of flipping into neoliberal territory that that which enticed Obama to the dark side of trickle-down healthcare and Republican economics.
This analysis that backs up their claims shows exactly why Trump can get away with calling mainstream media “fake news.” Little by little, I’ve stopped watching MSNBC over the summer to where I now don’t watch it at all (except Chris Hayes, but it’s been weeks since I last watched him). This analysis clearly shows their bias against Sanders. In general, I’ve grown really disappointed in the state of American journalism, canceling my subscriptions to NYT & WaPo. I hope the voting public can recognize their deception and perfidy.
Her skin crawls because demons try to escape her body when they hear the truth about how full of shit neo-liberals are.
Your bias towards Bernie Sanders is unacceptable, unethical, and unprofessional. You have a duty to the American people to report the news honestly, and right now you are sinking to the level of Fox News. Just stop, because people are NOT STUPID, and can see what you’re doing. Lacking journalistic integrity will lose you viewers.
Also, great reporting Katie Halper! MSNBC is going downhill.
Fox News is an apt comparison. It immediately struck me how remarkably Fox-like MSDNC has become. For the record, I modified my cable subscription in 2016 to exclude the latter for good, once I noticed that Meet the Press had neglected to mention anything at all about Bernie Sanders the week that he announced his candidacy, despite the fact that he was the *only* other D candidate in the race at that point.
I think you mean bias AGAINST Bernie Sanders by MSNBC, right? It was a little confusing since you said “bias towards,” and the “your” made it seem directed at Katie Halper/FAIR, not MSNBC. But especially considering your follow-up comment I think I know what you meant!
CNBC starts the Tea Party protection scam, as a nerdy Black liberal, with a Muslim sounding name is elected. Now, it’s MSDNC’s turn to scare the Yuppie Resistance™ out of their pink hats. So, NU? Comcast’s selling the utter terror of we the peons ALL finally awakening?
Thank you!
I am truly disappointed in MSNBC. The reason I watch it , is because I thought they were pretty trust worthy. Especially Rachael maddow.
Not sure where to go from here. Cant we trust anyone not to screw with the truth??
Susan, MSNBC has always been against true progressives for years and is pro-war. Check out Democracynow.org for news that isnt supported by corporations.
perhaps you hadn’t noticed that DN! has guzzled the Russiagate Kool-Aid along with much of the rest of the media.
Kyle Kulinski, Jimmy Dore, Krystal Ball, The Humanist Report, TYT, and many more on YouTube. Time for new media!
excellent reporting katie. for the record maddow has been making my skin crawl since before I knew who Bernie was. If my understanding is correct clinton purchased for 1 mil the right to control the campaign advertising budget for the general election. not the primary cause that wouldn’t be fair. I’m guessing a phone call from the dnc explaining how supporting a challenger to the corporate flunky whose turn it is ie biden will reduce that networks percentage of that budget in the coming elections might help explain MSNBCs math difficulties. This dynamic should be explored further.
Yes, I’ve always wondered why the DNC was not called out for transferring ALL campaign raising and DISBURSEMENTS to one of the candidates… it’s corrupt, against their own rules and possibly illegal. Does anyone think that Hillary would fund a candidate or superdelegate who did not endorse her?!? Russiagate was Hillary’s distraction from the biggest scandal of the season.
FAIR, keep up the good work!
The “centrist” (neoliberal) part of the Dem party will lose again if they don’t stop this kind of biased reporting.
Way to go, Katie! I’m glad someone is keeping track of the bias against Bernie. It’s really sickening, but I guess we should expect it by now.
Keep up the good work!
OK, can we all take a deep breath and pull our panties out of a wad? These are two totally separate issues. Mimi is not the voice of MSNBC. She is paid for expressing her opinion and I understand that some feel that her comments about Sanders went too far although pale in comparison to some of the falsehoods and theories expressed by right-wing nut jobs on Faux. It was her opinion, not a falsehood. As for misstating the poll numbers, MSNBC is guilty and should say so. As a Beto supporter I have been highly critical of the network for doing exactly the same to him, placing his name below those with lower poll numbers.
How can you write “she is paid to express her opinion” and not understand that MSNBC is PAYING for her to say this nonsense? Was she fired, as was, Phil Donahue?
Spend more time thinking less time wadding up your panties. Biden is a sniffer. Stay safe.
Suggesting that TRUMP is Homophobic, xenophobic, sexist and all the other things you called him is a campaign on hatred and lies the very thing you are campaigning against. HYPOCRISY AGAIN AT ITS BEST. Like cutting workers hours to meet $15 minimum wage and supporting minimum wage increases. All you do is LIE & HATE!
The Democratic Party and Wall Street and the NY Times try very hard to ignore or minimize Bernie. Any thinking person, therefore, would be motivated to like him more than ever!
Dam right msm doesn’t want Bernie to win, cause they all work for the corporate democrats.
Zionist deep state totally controls corporate media: money, not journalism determines what information the masses receive.
I didn’t know that the control granted her was so extensive. That is truly disturbing.
Their excuse at the time was they offered Bernie the same deal. For the same price I suppose. Quite a bargain. Maybe he should have asked for an advance on “Where we go from here”. Maybe he determined that since he already had one full time job paying a respectable lower six figures, and was running for president of the wealthiest, most powerful country on earth he had quite enough responsibilities for the moment.
Or could it be that unlike a party that is democratic in name only he actually believes and has faith in real one man one vote democracy and feared he might feel somewhat unclean to even consider such a proposal. We may never know.
Russia didn’t elect Trump. The DNC did. They also blew house, senate and local seats as well. How so? In the unlikely event that Hillary won the nomination without tipping the scales by manipulating the press, super delegates and brazenly showing their contempt for democracy by such as blatantly calling voice votes the wrong way etc. enough millennials would have chosen to delay dealing with existential problems that needed real solutions yesterday for another 8 years instead of 50 or 100, and held their noses, voted for Hillary and along with her democrats, some of whom were true progressives, running for house, senate and local seats, as I myself did instead of staying home. That this also cost congressional influence for progressive causes (like not allowing the lifetime appointment of an obviously profoundly compromised persons to the supreme court and myriad other important positions) is an important point. It wasn’t just the presidency.
It is my belief that if Bernie had won the nomination the 2016 election would have produced the highest turnout in this country’s history and the shred of a percentage of the American population who actually cast a vote for trump might have been even less and would have been in any case exponentially less significant. In addition Democrats would have likely swept both houses and important down ballot positions.
Let’s see. DNC corporate flunky whose turn it is and most disliked presidential candidate in modern American history vs probably the most widely respected famous person on planet earth with the enthusiastic support of a huge percentage if not the majority of what was the Democratic base. What to choose. The will of the donors is what.
And it looks like they’re poised to do it again with Biden or failing that, Harris. Makes you think that some members of the DNC leadership are not just corrupt, but maybe not too bright.
My profound hope is that this brilliant new generation will prove my pessimistic view unfounded. Laughable even better. There’s never been a generation more capable. Could it have been wise to justifiably say fool me once etc at that point in time and boycott the election? You never know. Really you never know.
MSNBC announced this week that it will henceforth be adopting the election tracking metric known in the industry as Fox Math.
Katie Halper, thank you for fact checking MSMBC biased, distortioned and malicious attacks on Bernie Sanders. Please, keep the good work!!!
I have great respect for Amy Rocah’s point of view and outspoken truth to justice. So it appears correct but opposing results gets you a time out on MSNBC!
MSNBC it’s so disappointing that your network has provided misleading poll information to your viewers who rely on the network’s truth to truth.
I’m looking for several episodes of reporting what has been demonstrated in this article. The quandary that never trump voters find themselves in is should I vote for change or for a candidate that has the best shot at defeating the current occupant in the People’s House. Truth should be reported as truth and not as massaged and finessed data.
Bring back Amy Rocah. She should never have been put in time out in the first place. Thank You Katie Halper for your eye-opening article!!
Mimi Rocah sorry I called you Amy!
Note that in terms of percent of female donors to Sanders’s campaign, 46% female would put him in third place, which is ahead of Klobuchar and Warren.
Thoughtful breakdown. I wonder if you have noticed a similar trend for Andrew Yang? His campaign slogan of MATH actually aligns with the title of this article very well. I notice your graphics also omit him, despite the polling and fundraising that puts him between 4th and 6th. Even in the 2020 match up graphic I believe he led by 6 points.