FOX HAS BEEN "MORE FAIR": WHY BERNIE'S TEAM HAS HAD IT WITH MSNBC

[Uncle Joe]

Faiz Shakir had seen enough. As summer turned to fall, and the 2020 Democratic presidential race entered the stretch run before the first caucuses and primaries, Shakir, who manages Bernie Sanders’s campaign, approached MSNBC president Phil Griffin to discuss his concerns with the network’s treatment of the Vermont senator’s second White House bid. “We watched a ton of terrible coverage occurring and we thought we’d at least try to address it,” he recalled.

For months, the campaign bristled at slights from MSNBC’s stable of hosts and commentators. Jason Johnson, an MSNBC contributor, predicted in January 2019 that Sanders would drop out by August, and network analyst Mimi Rocah said in July that Sanders made her “skin crawl.” On-screen graphics have omitted Sanders and misrepresented his poll numbers, a trend that inspired a sendup from the Onion.

“It’s been a struggle to change the tone and the tenor of the coverage that we receive,” Shakir said in an interview. “They’ve been among the last to acknowledge that Bernie Sanders’s path to the nomination is real, and even when it’s become real, they frequently discount it.” (A study from progressive magazine In These Times buttresses Shakir’s critique). Sanders also attended the off-the-record discussion with Griffin; an MSNBC spokesperson said the network has hosted similar meetings with other Democratic candidates. Shakir said the 30 Rock chat was “open” and “cordial,” but now, months later, he’s “not sure it really changed anything.”

(snip)

While Matthews’s rant was mostly met with mockery, there was anger last week when Chuck Todd quoted a story from a conservative publication on-air that described Sanders supporters as a “digital brown-shirt brigade,” prompting a condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League. (Todd will be one of five moderators at Wednesday’s debate.) And despite his newly minted status as the party’s national front-runner, Sanders has continued to face skepticism about his viability. The real story out of New Hampshire, Lawrence O’Donnell said, was “how much ground [Sanders has] lost from four years ago,” when he won the state’s primary in a decidedly smaller field than this year. “I don’t understand how Bernie is considered a front-runner,” Todd said after Sanders’s primary win.

(snip)

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/02/fox-has-been-more-fair-why-bernies-team-has-had-it-with-msnbc

[jalan48]

1. MSNBC is just an arm of media giant COMCAST.

[George II]

21. Fox News isn't an arm of media giant FOX CORPORATION, founded by Roger Ailes and Ruppert Murdoch?

[jalan48]

24. They are both giant media companies.

[George II]

25. One is right wing, one is not.

[jalan48]

49. And neither want to see their taxes go up under a Bernie Sanders Administration.

[UniteFightBack]

58. That jackass Michael Moore is on almost daily pimping for Bernie so just SAVE THE BULLSHIT. nt

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

54. SO TRUE!!

Bernie/Elizabeth or Elizabeth/Bernie 2020!!
Either way, they're stronger together & can't be bought!!
Jump on the Bernie Bandwagon & join the revolution!!

[HarlanPepper]

2. LOL I can't imagine why.

They want him as the nominee so their God Emperor can pummel Bernie in the fall. Or did you expect Fox to remain “fair” to Bernie after the convention should he be nominated?

[Happyhippychick]

3. There's another politician that used to continually whine about things being "unfair"

Trying to remember who that was...

[redstateblues]

6. Used to? Still does

[Uncle Joe]

19. Are you referring to Hillary?

(snip)

The Sanders team might actually find some common ground with Hillary Clinton, whose 2008 campaign had its own grievances with MSNBC. Clinton and her supporters scoffed at what they saw as unfair and sexist treatment from the network combined with its fawning coverage of Barack Obama. Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, a Clinton supporter in 2008, called MSNBC “the official network of the Obama campaign.” Matthews apologized at one point for saying Clinton was only the Democratic front-runner because “her husband messed around.” David Shuster, then a reporter for MSNBC, was suspended for saying that Chelsea Clinton “was sort of being pimped out” by the campaign, remarks that prompted Hillary Clinton to write a letter to the head of NBC News. “I would urge you to look at the pattern of behavior on your network that seems to repeatedly lead to this sort of degrading language,” Clinton wrote.

The twilight of George W. Bush‘s presidency and the ascent of Obama marked the beginning of MSNBC’s transformation into a liberal analog to Fox News. Keith Olbermann’s thunderous, Murrow-affected denunciations of Bush gave way to Matthews’s giddy embrace of Obama, ushering in a new era for a network that had previously struggled to find an identity. “This is the network that has opened its heart to change, to change and its possibilities,” Matthews said while covering Obama’s first inauguration in 2009. In 2010, MSNBC launched a marketing campaign that carried the tagline, “Lean Forward.” By 2012, the transformation was complete, with former president Bill Clinton remarking that MSNBC had “become our version of Fox.” When NBC News and MSNBC chairman Andy Lack returned to 30 Rock in 2015, there were rumblings that MSNBC would depart from some of its left-leaning opinion programming in favor of more hard news coverage, but the network—particularly its prime-time lineup, where Maddow is one of the most influential players in Democratic politics—has remained mostly a safe haven for the party faithful. It has not, however, played host to many of the leftist and progressive voices that have powered the Sanders movement and upended Democratic politics in the last four years. The party may be changing, but MSNBC has not.

(snip)

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/02/fox-has-been-more-fair-why-bernies-team-has-had-it-with-msnbc

[George II]

22. Nice try, and nice deflection. This is 2020, a LOT of things have changed since 2008.

[lapucelle]

34. If Matthews apologized and

David Schuster was suspended, than there were genuine problems in 2008, not imaginary grievances from a perpetual victim.

[spooky3]

51. +1

[Happyhippychick]

47. No, I'm not rehashing the last primary. Are you referring to Hillary?

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

56. EXCELLENT POINT UNCLE JOE... AS USUAL!!

Bernie/Elizabeth or Elizabeth/Bernie 2020!!
Either way, they're stronger together & can't be bought!!
Jump on the Bernie Bandwagon & join the revolution!!

[lapucelle]

4. Always the victim, with Fox News and Glenn Greewald cheering the whole thing on. N/T

[redstateblues]

5. Always the victim. Always playing the grievance card in Bernie world

[customerserviceguy]

20. I've been watching a bit of Fox News

and it's crystal clear that they're handing out the deck.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Check out Tom Kludt's Twitter feed.

He's all in for Bernie on Twitter, so maybe this isn't the most objective opinion piece. And he seems to be a fan of Glenn Greenwald.

[kydemo]

8. Oh, please

MSNBC has been critical of all of the candidates at various times. Grow a set, Bernie and Bernie supporters.

[Xipe Totec]

27. Ou contraire, my low post friend

I've never seen such obvious pushback against Sanders and pro Bloomberg.

First Kacie and now Chris Matthews

It's disgusting.

[pwb]

9. Media Corporations competing for all that election ad money. It is not right.

We pay them, advertisers pay them, elections pay them. What a profit machine ha? Fucking everything up along the way. $$$$$

[George II]

10. Yeah, they've had it with MSNBC until the next time Chris Hayes invites some of them like....

...in a day or two?

[Happy Hoosier]

11. Sanders' team doesn't want anyone who presses the Chosen One. NT

[LakeArenal]

12. Joy Reid always disparages Biden

It’s what they do. Some of it is pure bias, some is the “Horse Race” policy.

[msongs]

13. poooooooooor persecuted bernie. such a victim nt

[NurseJackie]

14. Oh brother. Spare me.

[Skidmore]

15. Just, wow!

So we can expect FOX to be the go-to source for Sanders supporters here? Is Hannity the new adviser for the Democratic Party? Trump and PT Barnum are indeed one and the same.

Won't be following y'all down that road to Perdition.

[LanternWaste]

16. The martyrdom routine got real old real fast

And it's almost (not quite, mind you, but almost) as absurd as pretending anecdotal evidence is as good as objective data in reaching a conclusion.

But the narrative sells, and there's a lot of desperate people looking for righteous man to lift them above worldly iniquities... PT Barnum's predictions seem a lot more valid than bumper stickers.

[CalFione]

17. Why do you think Fox has been more fair to Bernie?

Is it possible that they want to make sure Bernie wins the Democratic nomination before they go negative on him?

Has that possibility even crossed your mind?

You can’t conceive of the idea that Fox is trying to help select Trump’s opponent, so you are blind to the possibility.

[Deero]

18. we are

within a week of Saders supporters posting pro Bernie articles from Hannity and John Solomon arent we?

[uponit7771]

23. Where's the onion link ?! Please post it ... thx

[Uncle Joe]

28. Here it is.

MSNBC Poll Finds Support For Bernie Sanders Has Plummeted 2 Points Up

https://politics.theonion.com/msnbc-poll-finds-support-for-bernie-sanders-has-plummet-1839538968

[uponit7771]

50. lol ... they're always good for a chuckle

[LiberalFighter]

26. Complaining about coverage? What are they smoking?

[Midnight Writer]

29. That does it! From now on I will only watch FOX News for fair and balanced coverage of the Primaries

because MSNBC and CNN are owned by corporations!

[Gothmog]

30. Fox and trump really want a very weak and unelectable candidate like sanders to be the nominee

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Boulevardier]

33. RCP has Sanders beating Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.

RCP also has Biden beating Trump in all three states.

These "we are doomed" screeds grow tiresome.

[Gothmog]

35. At the national convention, vetted sanders delegates booed John Lewis, Elijah Cummings and others

These were planned stunts of booing Congressmen John Lewis and Elijah Cummings. My whip warned me about these stunts 20 to 30 minutes before they occurred.

If sanders is the nominee, the GOP and Russians will use these stunts to suppress the vote of African American voters. There was a ton of real anger at the National Convention about these stunts

Link to tweet

Without African American support, sanders would lose like McGovern

[Gothmog]

38. trump would bury and destroy a weak candidate like sanders

I am very worried about down ballot races. sanders is a very weak candidate and would be easy for trump to destroy. In addition to the well written 101 page memorandum with oppo on sanders with a 1000 pages of backup from the Clinton campaign trump has his own oppo file on sanders that would destroy such a weak and divisive candidate like sanders.

Link to tweet

trump had a two foot thick book of oppo research on Sanders http://www.newsweek.com/myths-cost-democrats-presidential-election-521044

They ignored the fact that Sanders had not yet faced a real campaign against him. Clinton was in the delicate position of dealing with a large portion of voters who treated Sanders more like the Messiah than just another candidate. She was playing the long game—attacking Sanders strongly enough to win, but gently enough to avoid alienating his supporters. Given her overwhelming support from communities of color—for example, about 70 percent of African-American voters cast their ballot for her—Clinton had a firewall that would be difficult for Sanders to breach....

So what would have happened when Sanders hit a real opponent, someone who did not care about alienating the young college voters in his base? I have seen the opposition book assembled by Republicans for Sanders, and it was brutal. The Republicans would have torn him apart. And while Sanders supporters might delude themselves into believing that they could have defended him against all of this, there is a name for politicians who play defense all the time: losers....

The Republicans had at least four other damning Sanders videos (I don’t know what they showed), and the opposition research folder was almost 2-feet thick. (The section calling him a communist with connections to Castro alone would have cost him Florida.) In other words, the belief that Sanders would have walked into the White House based on polls taken before anyone really attacked him is a delusion built on a scaffolding of political ignorance.

sanders was such a weak primary candidate that the Clinton campaign did not use its oppo but trump would have fun destroying such a weak candidate like sanders

I will vote for the nominee of the party but I fear that the nomination of sanders will lead to a Speaker Kevin McCarthy

[sheshe2]

31. So Fox is now Fair and Balanced News?

I don't think so.

[Boulevardier]

32. Chris Matthews was at it again just now. A very ugly anti-Bernie rant.

And berating the other candidates for not attacking him more. What a hyper-partisan hack.

[Uncle Joe]

37. Matthews was a big fan of George W. Bush.

He is corporate first, last and in the middle.

[ehrnst]

36. So you're promoting a piece from the "corporate owned media" now....

I guess you don't have a problem with them anymore?

Well, other than TYT, anyway.

[krissey]

42. Fox. Wants Sanders to win. That is a good thing to tell everyone? Lol

[ehrnst]

44. I know, right? Especially coming from those who take umbrage at the VERY IDEA

that the GOP has and is promoting Sanders as their dreamboat candidate...

[krissey]

46. I saw another thread yesterday that was suppose to be an attack on Biden but really,

showed the difference between Democrats and Sanders when dealing with people that behaved poorly.

[doc03]

39. Well dah that is who the Republicans want to

run against.

[gollygee]

40. If Fox is friendly to Bernie that isn't a good sign. nt

[krissey]

41. Seriously? Had the Russian per Sanders himself help in 2016. Now, Fox is going to help pander Sander

[Mike Nelson]

43. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

... FOX is fair and balanced? I don't think so... they want Bernie to be the Democratic nominee. If he gets to be, watch how "fair and balanced" they treat him, then!

[awesomerwb1]

45. Victim card

Unlimited use.

[greenjar_01]

48. Yeesh

[aeromanKC]

52. Well no kidding the GOP Trump and his MAGAT's are fapping at running against a socialist

[OnDoutside]

53. Fox News, where everybody knows your Democratic Socialist name ?

[WePurrsevere]

55. If RW propaganda Fox is being "more fair" to Bernie, there's something in it for Trump. nt

[Vivienne235729]

57. FOX being nice to Bernie is all we need to know. That's not by accident or that they are "fair&balan

They want Bernie bc they know they can beat the crap out of him in the general.

[UniteFightBack]

59. Flat out fucking lie and I don't like easily disprovable lies. SMEARS & LIES ARE THEIR FUEL. NT