This is a very well-structured article and pretty well outlines what has been
going on, along with the incredibly insulting dismissal of Sanders as someone
not to be taken seriously, as I’ve always put it, relegating him to the kiddie
table, patting him on the head, and saying “isn’t he cute?” Infuriating and so
outrageous.
On Mar 29, 2016, at 4:15 PM, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > 10 Ways the Media and Political Establishment Have Tried to
Orchestrate the Democratic Primary
________________________________________
10 Ways the Media and Political Establishment Have Tried to Orchestrate the
Democratic Primary
By RoseAnn DeMoro [1] / AlterNet [2]
March 28, 2016
It's not over. Far from it. The economic and political establishment, which
includes the Democratic National Committee, its Wall Street and corporate
backers and the major media-most of it now owned by a half dozen big
corporations-have worked feverishly to turn the Democratic primary process
into a coronation for Hillary Clinton.
Bottom line: they wanted to declare it over before actual voters could vote,
but their carefully crafted strategy began to #FeelTheBern.
Here are 10 ways the establishment has sought to orchestrate the results,
and why the race has a long ways to go.
1. Major Media Blackout
When Sanders began his campaign, as he often recounts, he had virtually no
national name recognition and trailed Clinton by 60 to 70 points in national
polls. The major media barely breathed his name, even when he began drawing
crowds of 20,000 or more to summer rallies. This was partly the result of
the obsession with Trump, but also because the conglomerates controlling the
media hardly wanted to promote such a fierce critic of Wall Street and the 1
percent.
In December, the nightly news networks had allotted Trump 23 times more
coverage than Sanders; on ABC alone 81 minutes to Trump for the year,
compared to only 20 seconds for Sanders. While Sanders was holding extensive
campaign events and press availabilities for months, Clinton was mostly
avoiding public events and media avails, with the media largely ignoring its
rebuff. (Even today, Clinton often passes on press conferences.)
2. They're Debating When?
Ironically, unlike the Republican National Committee, the DNC manipulated
its debate schedule to have the fewest number of debates at the worst times,
intended to minimize voter viewing, including setting them on holiday
weekends and the Saturday night before Christmas.
The goal was to restrict voter exposure and side-by-side comparison with
other candidates who offered a significant alternative to Clinton, which
served to keep name recognition off Sanders and his prescription for change
artificially low. Additional debates were only added much later after
widespread condemnation of the DNC.
3. Sanders Booms, Media Works to Marginalize
As the votes began coming in for Bernie, especially with his big win in New
Hampshire, Clinton surrogates were given extra time as TV analysts to
downplay the results, and the media narrative shifted.
The media paradigm typically is crafted inside the Washington Beltway and
New York boardrooms, with other reporters compelled by their own editors or
self-censorship to follow along, a practice also known as pack journalism.
A parade of big-name liberal columnists, editorial writers and TV analysts
vilified Sanders' visionary program, especially Medicare-for-all and free
college tuition, while promoting Clinton's "pragmatic" (lower your
expectations) message that minimized the ongoing crisis felt by the millions
left behind without health care, unemployed or stuck in low-paying jobs,
facing mountains of student debt and all the other pervasive disparities
Sanders described.
The next storyline depicted Sanders as a narrow candidate because the
majority of his support came from students, working-class white voters,
independents, and low- to moderate-income voters, largely ignoring that
Clinton's own base failed to include any of those groups who would be
critical to winning a general election in November. Or that Clinton
continues to fail to move support among those constituencies.
4. Vote Rigging
After Sanders' sweeping win in New Hampshire, the DNC went into hyper drive
to break his momentum, starting in the next voting state Nevada.
Concerned Sanders would win Nevada, Sen. Harry Reid, the former Senate
Majority Leader and most powerful elected official in Nevada, as it later
emerged, arranged a plan with owners of Las Vegas casinos, where many
caucuses were being held, and other employers, to ensure Clinton would win.
The Nevada caucuses were then rigged with massive voting irregularities such
as casino owners orchestrating which workers would be allowed to vote and,
in clear intimidation, openly monitoring how they voted.
Vote tampering also occurred in other states, most recently in Arizona where
on election day, polling locations were sharply cut forcing many voters to
stand in line for up to five hours in the heat, with some leaving before
casting a vote.
Voter suppression laws, rampant now across the country, disproportionately
disenfranchise students and young voters, a group that has voted for Sanders
by margins of up to 80 percent. The laws, passed by right-wing legislatures
and governors, also target African Americans and Latinos, which will
ultimately harm any Democratic nominee in November.
5. The Sexism Canard
Desperate for attack lines against Sanders, the Clinton camp and her
adherents have tried to paint him as a sexist, employing the same tactic of
exaggerated small slights they used against Barack Obama in 2008 (remember
"you're likeable enough"). Add in the clumsy effort of Clinton surrogates
Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright to criticize young women who vote for
Sanders.
Memo to Clinton and company: Bernie Sanders is not Donald Trump. He has a
near perfect voting record on such issues as women's reproductive rights and
pay equity, and most of his proposals, especially Medicare-for-all, free
college tuition, and expanding Social Security would disproportionately help
women.
As the 90 percent female organization of nurses NNU has stated, we would
love to break the glass ceiling, but this election is unprecedented in its
opportunity to shatter the class ceiling.
6. Undemocratic Primaries
Sanders has won the overwhelming majority of independent voters in "open"
primaries or caucuses that allow them to vote.
Many Clinton surrogates have fulminated that any independent voters are
allowed to participate in the Democratic Party nominating process. As if
only the two major parties should be allowed to decide who can run for
office while a record 43 percent of U.S. voters are now independents in a
corrupted system. Winning the independents' votes is decisive in general
elections, suggesting they should have a voice in determining who are the
strongest candidates.
Because of the media blackout, many voters do not gain sufficient
information about Sanders until shortly before election day. Early voting
reflects lower name recognition for Sanders, benefiting Clinton and enabling
her to win some close races.
That contributes to the meme of her inevitability, but does not indicate she
is the stronger candidate. In competitive states, Sanders has won a majority
of those who voted on election day. When voters have more time to compare
candidates based on sufficient information, they tend to choose Bernie.
7. Superdelegates Toe the Line
Enormous pressure was brought to bear on the some 700 superdelegates, mostly
Democratic elected officials and other high-profile DNC members, to fall in
line behind Clinton, facing intimidation or promises well honed by a Clinton
machine that has had 25 years of practice.
An additional factor is the DNC decision to step up raking in cash from Wall
Street and other corporate donors, and their implicit pledge to use those
funds only for Democratic candidates who play ball by supporting Clinton.
These officials believe that the way to win elections is through big donor
fundraising and shapeshifting positions. The Sanders' campaign, supported by
millions of small donors engaged in a movement mobilization, is foreign in
their eyes and threatening to their donor base.
The overwhelming tilt of superdelegates for Clinton has fueled the narrative
that Sanders can't win, a line that the superdelegates, who have a wider
audience as members of Congress and often as supposedly neutral TV analysts,
parrot relentlessly, along with the other Clinton/DNC/major media attacks.
The DNC created the undemocratic superdelegate system to confer the power on
the Democratic Party hierarchy to handpick their preference and blunt the
ability of insurgents to win the nomination after outsiders George McGovern
and Jimmy Carter shocked the party establishment by winning nominations in
the 1970s.
8. Who's Most Electable, Who Is Not
It's repeated over and over by her superdelegates and the media-Clinton is
the most electable candidate, and Democrats must rally behind her to beat
Trump. The line has been so drummed into the narrative that many voters in
exit polls cite it as the reason they voted for Clinton.
One problem: it's not true. Virtually every poll for months has shown
Sanders faring better against Trump, Cruz and Kasich than Clinton, often by
a wide margin, even as the media has already played out the attack lines
Republicans would use against Sanders.
Additionally, the media largely ignores the salient point that Clinton has
nearly the highest unfavorable ratings of any leading Democrat to run for
president. By contrast, Sanders, widely praised by voters as the most honest
and trustworthy candidate most have ever seen, has among the lowest
unfavorable ratings, despite the media shock that anyone would trust, much
less vote for a Democratic socialist.
The media consistently downplays a key Sanders point: how the enthusiasm he
generates-evident in the more than 800,000 people who have packed his
campaign rallies-that is largely absent from Clinton's campaign is critical
for the nominee to win, as well as to help in down-ballot races for
Democrats.
9. The Math, the Math
The final defense for the Clinton camp and the major media, spinning out
from the eastern media centers to local news outlets, is that Clinton is too
far ahead in delegates so the race is over.
To strengthen the case, Clinton's big margin among superdelegates is added
to the total of delegates won in primaries and caucuses. Even though, unlike
pledged delegates, superdelegates are not committed to their position. They
can flip at will, as they did from Clinton to Obama in 2008.
Next time you hear a pundit say Sanders needs to win 60 percent of the
remaining delegates, "and that just can't happen," consider his 80 percent
margin in Idaho and Utah.
In state after state, especially those that are not closed to independents,
where Sanders has had time to campaign so voters get to know him, his
platform, consistent record and unimpeachable character, and when the voting
process is allowed to move forward without open rigging, Sanders does
increasingly well.
The result often is wins, as in Michigan and recent caucus states, or
effective ties in votes and delegates, as in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.
Even in states where Clinton ultimately won because of voters who voted
early by mail, Sanders increasingly won the majority of those who turn out
on election day.
10. Forward to Victory
Sanders himself says the path to his nomination is challenging, but still
within range. States that were the biggest hurdle, in the South where the
Clintons have a long history and Sanders was a complete unknown, are all
past.
The remaining states, including the two largest, California and New York,
which have a base more favorable to Sanders, can be won with lots of
delegates to be awarded. National polls have already shown substantial
movement toward Sanders the past two months, and his edge over Clinton in
head to head matchups with the remaining Republicans continues to grow.
The challenge, of course, is not just to Clinton, but to the movement,
including nurses and the activist army that has shattered all records in
campaign contributions to Sanders and creates the overflow crowds at his
rallies.
Enthusiasm for the Sanders campaign, the transformative program he presents,
which is the program NNU and grassroots activists have long championed, is
off the charts and continuing to grow.
It's on to California, and what promises to be an explosive convention in
Philadelphia.
RoseAnn DeMoro is executive director of National Nurses United.
Share on Facebook Share
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Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [3]
[4]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/10-ways-media-and-political-establishm
ent-have-tried-orchestrate-democratic-primary
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/roseann-demoro
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on 10 Ways the Media and
Political Establishment Have Tried to Orchestrate the Democratic Primary
[4] http://www.alternet.org/
[5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > 10 Ways the Media and Political Establishment Have Tried to
Orchestrate the Democratic Primary
10 Ways the Media and Political Establishment Have Tried to Orchestrate the
Democratic Primary
By RoseAnn DeMoro [1] / AlterNet [2]
March 28, 2016
It's not over. Far from it. The economic and political establishment, which
includes the Democratic National Committee, its Wall Street and corporate
backers and the major media-most of it now owned by a half dozen big
corporations-have worked feverishly to turn the Democratic primary process
into a coronation for Hillary Clinton.
Bottom line: they wanted to declare it over before actual voters could vote,
but their carefully crafted strategy began to #FeelTheBern.
Here are 10 ways the establishment has sought to orchestrate the results,
and why the race has a long ways to go.
1. Major Media Blackout
When Sanders began his campaign, as he often recounts, he had virtually no
national name recognition and trailed Clinton by 60 to 70 points in national
polls. The major media barely breathed his name, even when he began drawing
crowds of 20,000 or more to summer rallies. This was partly the result of
the obsession with Trump, but also because the conglomerates controlling the
media hardly wanted to promote such a fierce critic of Wall Street and the 1
percent.
In December, the nightly news networks had allotted Trump 23 times more
coverage than Sanders; on ABC alone 81 minutes to Trump for the year,
compared to only 20 seconds for Sanders. While Sanders was holding extensive
campaign events and press availabilities for months, Clinton was mostly
avoiding public events and media avails, with the media largely ignoring its
rebuff. (Even today, Clinton often passes on press conferences.)
2. They're Debating When?
Ironically, unlike the Republican National Committee, the DNC manipulated
its debate schedule to have the fewest number of debates at the worst times,
intended to minimize voter viewing, including setting them on holiday
weekends and the Saturday night before Christmas.
The goal was to restrict voter exposure and side-by-side comparison with
other candidates who offered a significant alternative to Clinton, which
served to keep name recognition off Sanders and his prescription for change
artificially low. Additional debates were only added much later after
widespread condemnation of the DNC.
3. Sanders Booms, Media Works to Marginalize
As the votes began coming in for Bernie, especially with his big win in New
Hampshire, Clinton surrogates were given extra time as TV analysts to
downplay the results, and the media narrative shifted.
The media paradigm typically is crafted inside the Washington Beltway and
New York boardrooms, with other reporters compelled by their own editors or
self-censorship to follow along, a practice also known as pack journalism.
A parade of big-name liberal columnists, editorial writers and TV analysts
vilified Sanders' visionary program, especially Medicare-for-all and free
college tuition, while promoting Clinton's "pragmatic" (lower your
expectations) message that minimized the ongoing crisis felt by the millions
left behind without health care, unemployed or stuck in low-paying jobs,
facing mountains of student debt and all the other pervasive disparities
Sanders described.
The next storyline depicted Sanders as a narrow candidate because the
majority of his support came from students, working-class white voters,
independents, and low- to moderate-income voters, largely ignoring that
Clinton's own base failed to include any of those groups who would be
critical to winning a general election in November. Or that Clinton
continues to fail to move support among those constituencies.
4. Vote Rigging
After Sanders' sweeping win in New Hampshire, the DNC went into hyper drive
to break his momentum, starting in the next voting state Nevada.
Concerned Sanders would win Nevada, Sen. Harry Reid, the former Senate
Majority Leader and most powerful elected official in Nevada, as it later
emerged, arranged a plan with owners of Las Vegas casinos, where many
caucuses were being held, and other employers, to ensure Clinton would win.
The Nevada caucuses were then rigged with massive voting irregularities such
as casino owners orchestrating which workers would be allowed to vote and,
in clear intimidation, openly monitoring how they voted.
Vote tampering also occurred in other states, most recently in Arizona where
on election day, polling locations were sharply cut forcing many voters to
stand in line for up to five hours in the heat, with some leaving before
casting a vote.
Voter suppression laws, rampant now across the country, disproportionately
disenfranchise students and young voters, a group that has voted for Sanders
by margins of up to 80 percent. The laws, passed by right-wing legislatures
and governors, also target African Americans and Latinos, which will
ultimately harm any Democratic nominee in November.
5. The Sexism Canard
Desperate for attack lines against Sanders, the Clinton camp and her
adherents have tried to paint him as a sexist, employing the same tactic of
exaggerated small slights they used against Barack Obama in 2008 (remember
"you're likeable enough"). Add in the clumsy effort of Clinton surrogates
Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright to criticize young women who vote for
Sanders.
Memo to Clinton and company: Bernie Sanders is not Donald Trump. He has a
near perfect voting record on such issues as women's reproductive rights and
pay equity, and most of his proposals, especially Medicare-for-all, free
college tuition, and expanding Social Security would disproportionately help
women.
As the 90 percent female organization of nurses NNU has stated, we would
love to break the glass ceiling, but this election is unprecedented in its
opportunity to shatter the class ceiling.
6. Undemocratic Primaries
Sanders has won the overwhelming majority of independent voters in "open"
primaries or caucuses that allow them to vote.
Many Clinton surrogates have fulminated that any independent voters are
allowed to participate in the Democratic Party nominating process. As if
only the two major parties should be allowed to decide who can run for
office while a record 43 percent of U.S. voters are now independents in a
corrupted system. Winning the independents' votes is decisive in general
elections, suggesting they should have a voice in determining who are the
strongest candidates.
Because of the media blackout, many voters do not gain sufficient
information about Sanders until shortly before election day. Early voting
reflects lower name recognition for Sanders, benefiting Clinton and enabling
her to win some close races.
That contributes to the meme of her inevitability, but does not indicate she
is the stronger candidate. In competitive states, Sanders has won a majority
of those who voted on election day. When voters have more time to compare
candidates based on sufficient information, they tend to choose Bernie.
7. Superdelegates Toe the Line
Enormous pressure was brought to bear on the some 700 superdelegates, mostly
Democratic elected officials and other high-profile DNC members, to fall in
line behind Clinton, facing intimidation or promises well honed by a Clinton
machine that has had 25 years of practice.
An additional factor is the DNC decision to step up raking in cash from Wall
Street and other corporate donors, and their implicit pledge to use those
funds only for Democratic candidates who play ball by supporting Clinton.
These officials believe that the way to win elections is through big donor
fundraising and shapeshifting positions. The Sanders' campaign, supported by
millions of small donors engaged in a movement mobilization, is foreign in
their eyes and threatening to their donor base.
The overwhelming tilt of superdelegates for Clinton has fueled the narrative
that Sanders can't win, a line that the superdelegates, who have a wider
audience as members of Congress and often as supposedly neutral TV analysts,
parrot relentlessly, along with the other Clinton/DNC/major media attacks.
The DNC created the undemocratic superdelegate system to confer the power on
the Democratic Party hierarchy to handpick their preference and blunt the
ability of insurgents to win the nomination after outsiders George McGovern
and Jimmy Carter shocked the party establishment by winning nominations in
the 1970s.
8. Who's Most Electable, Who Is Not
It's repeated over and over by her superdelegates and the media-Clinton is
the most electable candidate, and Democrats must rally behind her to beat
Trump. The line has been so drummed into the narrative that many voters in
exit polls cite it as the reason they voted for Clinton.
One problem: it's not true. Virtually every poll for months has shown
Sanders faring better against Trump, Cruz and Kasich than Clinton, often by
a wide margin, even as the media has already played out the attack lines
Republicans would use against Sanders.
Additionally, the media largely ignores the salient point that Clinton has
nearly the highest unfavorable ratings of any leading Democrat to run for
president. By contrast, Sanders, widely praised by voters as the most honest
and trustworthy candidate most have ever seen, has among the lowest
unfavorable ratings, despite the media shock that anyone would trust, much
less vote for a Democratic socialist.
The media consistently downplays a key Sanders point: how the enthusiasm he
generates-evident in the more than 800,000 people who have packed his
campaign rallies-that is largely absent from Clinton's campaign is critical
for the nominee to win, as well as to help in down-ballot races for
Democrats.
9. The Math, the Math
The final defense for the Clinton camp and the major media, spinning out
from the eastern media centers to local news outlets, is that Clinton is too
far ahead in delegates so the race is over.
To strengthen the case, Clinton's big margin among superdelegates is added
to the total of delegates won in primaries and caucuses. Even though, unlike
pledged delegates, superdelegates are not committed to their position. They
can flip at will, as they did from Clinton to Obama in 2008.
Next time you hear a pundit say Sanders needs to win 60 percent of the
remaining delegates, "and that just can't happen," consider his 80 percent
margin in Idaho and Utah.
In state after state, especially those that are not closed to independents,
where Sanders has had time to campaign so voters get to know him, his
platform, consistent record and unimpeachable character, and when the voting
process is allowed to move forward without open rigging, Sanders does
increasingly well.
The result often is wins, as in Michigan and recent caucus states, or
effective ties in votes and delegates, as in Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.
Even in states where Clinton ultimately won because of voters who voted
early by mail, Sanders increasingly won the majority of those who turn out
on election day.
10. Forward to Victory
Sanders himself says the path to his nomination is challenging, but still
within range. States that were the biggest hurdle, in the South where the
Clintons have a long history and Sanders was a complete unknown, are all
past.
The remaining states, including the two largest, California and New York,
which have a base more favorable to Sanders, can be won with lots of
delegates to be awarded. National polls have already shown substantial
movement toward Sanders the past two months, and his edge over Clinton in
head to head matchups with the remaining Republicans continues to grow.
The challenge, of course, is not just to Clinton, but to the movement,
including nurses and the activist army that has shattered all records in
campaign contributions to Sanders and creates the overflow crowds at his
rallies.
Enthusiasm for the Sanders campaign, the transformative program he presents,
which is the program NNU and grassroots activists have long championed, is
off the charts and continuing to grow.
It's on to California, and what promises to be an explosive convention in
Philadelphia.
RoseAnn DeMoro is executive director of National Nurses United.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [3]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[4]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/10-ways-media-and-political-establishm
ent-have-tried-orchestrate-democratic-primary
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/roseann-demoro
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on 10 Ways the Media and
Political Establishment Have Tried to Orchestrate the Democratic Primary
[4] http://www.alternet.org/
[5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
