Bernie Sanders with Hillary Clinton at the Democratic debate: “Let me say something about the media….”
One of the biggest audience responses during the October 12 Democratic presidential debate came when Bernie Sanders agreed with Hillary Clinton that focus on her email server was a distraction. But as Lee Fang at the Intercept (10/14/15) pointed out, TV coverage only stressed part of that story, the part about the political impact of Sanders expressing solidarity with Clinton.
MSNBC‘s report, for example, cut from Sanders comment, “The secretary is right, and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails,” to his words, “Enough of the emails. Let’s talk about the real issues facing America.”
What came in between, which MSNBC and others cut out, was Sanders saying to CNN‘s Anderson Cooper:
Anderson…let me say something about the media, as well. I go around the country, talk to a whole lot of people. Middle class in this country is collapsing. We have 27 million people living in poverty. We have massive wealth and income inequality. Our trade policies have cost us millions of decent jobs. The American people want to know whether we’re going to have a democracy or an oligarchy as a result of Citizens United. Enough of the emails….
Sanders, in other words, wasn’t just criticizing Republicans, he was also criticizing media that prioritize sensationalism over basic economic realities.
Should we be surprised that media want to skip over that bit? We can’t improve on the words of investigative journalist and media critic George Seldes: “The most sacred cow of the press is the press itself.”
Watch video of the complete exchange:
Sanders slams media from The Intercept on Vimeo.
Janine Jackson is the program director of FAIR and the host of CounterSpin.
Thank you for reminding us of the context of his remarks and what the media chose to cut from their discussion. I don’t know why the media keeps giving kudos to Hillary and completely disregards Sanders! Bernie has my vote because he stands up for ‘the people’ and not the corporations and the wealthy. Hillary unfortunately has too many ties to the wealthy who will continue to lobby for more tax breaks for themselves and for more land and ocean to frack and drill at the expense of ‘the people’. Bernie wants to stop this from happening. Wake up America–we are being used and abused by corporations and the wealthy who will stop at nothing to satisfy their greed. We must move on climate change immediately or suffer the consequences which will be worse for ‘the people’ than for the wealthy and the corporations. This is our biggest and most important battle ever, for if we do nothing we stand to lose everything!
“The most sacred cow of the press is the press itself.”
What utter rubbish … the “most sacred cow…” is anyone daring to criticise Israel with it’s murderous attacks on Palestinians and theft of their land which Sanders also won’t utter a word about.
@Alec, sadly I have to agree with you. Our entire Congress is so far up Israel’s ass, it’s disgusting. I don’t care if Bernie wins the election or not (the president is just a puppet after all), but his campaign is doing wonders for waking people out of their stupor and shifting the national dialogue to issues that truly matter to the 99%. This is how change will be made on that front.
As for Israel, that’s a massive ship to turn around. But at least we’ve started turning the wheel.
And Seldes lived in Vermont for at least 50 years. And yes, Sanders was the rep in House from Vermont while Seldes was alive.
It would surprise me if those who respond to George Seldes’s remark as “utter rubbish” had ever read the man’s work. He spent a lifetime exposing the lies of the newspapers and governments, taking on Mussolini at the same time the Italian leader was lauded by corporate leaders and newspaper owners around the U.S. He interviewed Lenin after the revolution and reported from Spain during the Civil War. Later, he started the newsletter, “In Fact” to expose the daily lies of the press. Still later in his long life (he lived to be 104), he served on the board of some hippie group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
He was an honest-to-God reporter, an animal almost now extinct. And his brother Gilbert sold a few books, too.
I started collecting his books in the 60’s, when used bookstores were my playground. He had a lot to say and a lot to teach people today. I was glad to see him quoted, but hate to think him forgotten or so easily dismissed.
Sanders was indeed criticizing “media that prioritize sensationalism over basic economic realities.” He couldn’t go much beyond that without evoking the wrath of the dozen or so billionaires who now own the United States lock, stock, and barrel. What he might have said was that the media have destroyed the American democracy by keeping its voters uninformed.
Here’s a little secret the media will never divulge: We have lost one of the most successful governments in human history. It is gone, and it is not coming back.
Here we go again: “the media have destroyed the American democracy by keeping its voters uninformed.” Tell me, when has it ever been different? You know, you liberals are just like the conservatives: you both look to some mythic past that never existed. I think of one liberal who thought everything was just dandy before Citizens United. And so many conservatives look back to the post WWII expansion in the 50s when “Father Knows Best” was on the air.” So please tell me when this wonderful period of democracy existed and for whom. I really want to know
So, for his one FAIR shot at clinching the DEM nomination, Bern wants to forget her one demonstrably criminal act to ELIMINATE her as opposition; and instead enable her continuing viability with more rhetorical lipservice, all around (these are their mere campaign ‘promises’, after all; and Zer0bama’s DEMonstrated precisely what worthless pledges those are!). With Not EVEN successful Senator’s SECRET HOLDS, nor effective FiliBuster’s; his initials aren’t B.S for nothing!
@ jb: I do not “look to some mythic past,” nor do I think “everything was just dandy before Citizens United,” and there has never been a “wonderful period of democracy” in the United States. What ridiculous claims!
The January 10, 2010 Citizens United decision made by five highly partisan Republican Supreme Court Justices could be overturned if the media informed the electorate of its significance. Now, thanks to the media, political officeholders of both major parties who do not oppose Citizens United have become so entrenched that there is little – if any – hope for change. Thus the media have destroyed the American democracy.
Mainstream media, all owned by the corporate rich, is it controlled by the rich or the educated upper half of society that owns all the wealth and worships it?
But surely, our Empire is a wealth driven mutual gratification society, a closed loop control system with all of the upper half in love with the excessive wealth they gain from it.
Although the media coverage of the e-mails has unquestionably been awful, it is not a non-issue. In fact, it has some important implications for how accountable and transparent a future Hillary Clinton presidency will be. Seeing how she also, in the same debate, supported the Patriot Act Section 215 and doubled down on her desire to prosecute Edward Snowden, it’s an appropriate question to ask why she feels more entitled to our e-mails than she feels we should be to a public employee such as herself.
As reported by the AP, the primary purpose of the server was to “afford Clinton additional legal opportunities to block government or private subpoenas in criminal, administrative or civil cases”. The server (which Clinton never publicly disclosed prior) was discovered after the AP and several other news outlets had filed lawsuits pertaining to unfulfilled FOIA requests. These were related to a number of issues, but most of them were not related to such baldly partisan motives as the Benghazi committee. Clinton and media coverage generally have preferred to associate the two stories however.
For a truly toothy media story, perhaps one could focus on why so many news outlets have to so frequently resort to lawsuits in order to compel government compliance to their legal obligations under FOIA. Instead, this story falls into the predictable partisan soap opera, which, unfortunately, otherwise liberal outlets seem to accept.
Sacred cows make the best hamburger meat. Num! Num!