A Short History of the Media Smugly Dismissing Bernie Sanders’ Campaign at Every Step of the Way

[Rebkeh]

A Short History of the Media Smugly Dismissing Bernie Sanders’ Campaign at Every Step of the Way

Despite the fact that Sanders’ campaign has only grown larger and larger, the media always bends over backwards to dismiss him.
BRANKO MARCETIC, Apr 5, 2016

(In These Times) By my count, from the announcement of Sanders’ campaign to today, this marks at least six distinct times that media commentators have declared the Sanders campaign dead in the water. Despite being repeatedly proved wrong, pundits have continued to confidently assert predictions as fact and what appears to at times be little more than gut instinct as gospel.

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This isn’t just an issue when it comes to the Sanders campaign. Much has been written about the media’s similarly repeated dismissals of Trump, who has been declared to have no shot at the presidency at least as many times as—if not more than—Sanders, most recently due to his poor standing among women in national polls. Yet the election is still a whole seven months away, and a lot can change in that time. It seems to me that for the most part, we have very little to gain, and much to lose, from such predictive journalism.

In 1981, Duke University and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars produced a joint study on presidential nominations that raised concerns about the way media coverage shapes nomination races. Its words are just as prophetic today:

Winners of early primaries quickly become “front-runners” with subsequent increases in media attention; losers, despite substantial promises of support in later primaries, are quickly relegated to the category of also-rans and have difficulty raising money and attracting volunteers…the participants in Iowa’s caucuses or New Hampshire’s primary have a much greater say in the selection of the major party presidential nominee than do voters of, for instance, New Jersey or California.

Among other things, the study suggested that media avoid labeling “every primary the make-it-or-break-it election.”

Read full article: http://inthesetimes.com/article/19030/despite-the-medias-constant-dismissal-bernie-sanders-is-still-competing-wit