This Video of Cable News Counting Bernie Sanders Out Is Progressive Schadenfreude
Photos by Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Politics News Bernie Sanders
At this point, it’s ancient news that the mainstream media has a habit of bashing or completely ignoring Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, but a video posted to Twitter by Shaun King Thursday shows just how pervasive the anti-Bernie sentiment is within televised media coverage.
“The news media hates Bernie,” reads the tweet by King. “Watch how many times they’ve said our campaign is over, should be over, or will be over soon.”
The news media hates Bernie.
Watch how many times they’ve said our campaign is over, should be over, or will be over soon.
— Shaun King (@shaunking) February 20, 2020
The clips featured in the video are largely from MSNBC and CNN, who have both hosted Democratic debates with criticism that their treatment of Sanders was unfair or biased. Just a few weeks ago, MSNBC Correspondent Chuck Todd came under fire for outright comparing Sanders’ passionate online supporters to Brownshirts.
At Wednesday night’s debate in Nevada, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called Sanders a “communist,” further perpetuating the stereotype that all billionaires and aristocrats will be sent to the gulags if Sanders wins the presidency (the video also features Chris Matthews trembling over “executions [of the wealthy] in Central Park” if Sanders wins, admitting, “I might have been one of the ones being executed”).
Really, it’s promising to see that over the past year, the media has largely bashed and discredited Sanders while his supporters and donations have grown at an unprecedented rate. It’s going to take a lot more than fear-mongering and complaining about Sanders’ tone of voice to knock him down from frontrunner status.
The Nevada Democratic Caucus will take place on Saturday, Feb. 22, with Sanders currently holding a clear lead.