When only about half the states had cast their votes in the Democratic primaries, the New York Times had already chosen its winner. Before Sen. Bernie Sanders conceded, in Times headlines he was as good as out of the race.
It’s not that the Times ignored Sanders; in fact, from February 1 to April 6, he was mentioned in far more articles than his rival Joe Biden, 1,973 vs. 735. But at best, the paper dis- missed Sanders. At worst, it demonized him.
On March 18, the Times published “Bernie Sanders Has No Realistic Chance to Win. Some Democrats Say, ‘It’s Over’” (3/18/20), taking it upon itself to call the race. Days later, “How It All Came Apart for Bernie Sanders” (3/21/20) explained how Biden’s Super Tuesday comeback, left Sanders’ campaign “all but vanquished.”
In this piece, Sanders was “revolutionary to a fault,” delivering “anti-establishment diatribes,” while Biden was “safe-and-steady.” The article highlighted conflicts among Sanders’ inner circle, and his difficulties in uniting the Democratic Party—including engaging the majority of black voters—as reasons the Vermont senator was trailing. It also mentioned his conflict with Sen. Elizabeth Warren over whether he had told her he didn’t think a woman could become president.
A March 30 Times article (3/30/20) discussed a Washington Post/ABC News poll that found Republicans more excited to vote for Trump than Democrats were to vote for Biden: Just 24% said they were “very enthusiastic” about voting for Biden—the lowest level of enthusiasm for a presidential candidate the Post and ABC have recorded in 20 years.
There was no mention of why many voters might be less excited to vote for Biden—aside from coronavirus preoccupation. There was no mention, for example, of Medicare for All, a program that is extremely popular among Democratic voters—76% supported it in the latest Morning Consult poll (4/1/20), up 9 points in net approval since the impact of the pandemic was widely felt—but is decisively rejected by the former vice president, who says of the coronavirus crisis (NBCNews.com, 3/30/20), “Single payer will not solve that at all.”
Another Times article, “How ‘Never Bernie’ Voters Threw In With Biden and Changed the Primary” (4/1/20), asserted that “a chief reason for Mr. Biden’s success” was voters who “found the prospect of Mr. Sanders and his calls for political revolution so distasteful that they put aside misgivings about Mr. Biden and backed him instead.” These voters, the piece argued, saw Sanders as “the only candidate in the vast Democratic field they found objectionable for reasons personal and political.”
Such voters no doubt exist, but that they existed in numbers large enough to swing the election is dubious. In the last Morning Consult poll conducted prior to Super Tuesday (2/23–27/20), 74% of Democratic voters said they viewed Sanders favorably, vs. 22% who saw him unfavorably. For Biden, it was 67% favorable, 27% unfavorable. A month later (3/23–29/20), no doubt boosted by media treating him as the nominee-apparent, Biden’s numbers had improved to 76%/20% —but Sanders favorability was little changed, at 72%/23%.
While there weren’t an overwhelming number of Democratic voters who saw Sanders as utterly unacceptable, that was a common attitude among the “donors and party officials” that the Times (4/16/19) has acknowledged as the core of the “anti-Sanders campaign.” The Times has always been close to these “establishment-aligned Democrats,” going back to the 19th century, and the paper has routinely served as a platform for their concerns (FAIR.org, 10/28/17).
The Times and others treated Sanders citing the coronavirus pandemic as proof of the need for his Medicare for All plan as somehow egregiously self-serving. In a political memo, “As Coronavirus Crisis Unfolds, Sanders Sees a Moment That Matches His Ideas” (3/26/20), Sydney Ember wrote that Sanders is “still pushing his agenda” in the midst of the pandemic, though “it’s not clear who’s listening.” Ember wrote:
Mr. Sanders will take the stage when he can get it—including on the Senate floor Wednesday night, but also in news releases, radio and television interviews and livestreams where he studiously repeats his mantra to loyalists who once crowded Iowa auditoriums to cheer him, but now must settle for sometimes technologically challenged digital presentations.
As recently as February 29, Sanders had a double-digit lead over Biden in polling averages among Democratic voters. As coverage painting Sanders as an unviable candidate mounted, so did Biden’s popularity in polls. n
Olivia Riggio is a journalist based in New Jersey and New York.
