The Media AND Both Political Parties Are Working Against Democracy
Muncie, Indiana NEWS – Plenty has been written about the media’s coverage of the 2016 presidential primary. All the conservative pundits would say the liberal media was unfair to republican contenders. Fox News had plenty of anecdotal comments about the liberal media coverage. Every time the Gannett owned Indy Star would mention Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, or hold Donald Trump accountable for making another false statement, the comment sections would claim, “liberal trash or liberal media bias”. There is no doubt that our media is biased, it’s just not biased toward truth-seeking. The media are biased toward profit-seeking. Toss in the latest on DNC Leaks coming from Wikileaks, and our press quickly appears to be a money making fraud.
Harvard’s Shorenstein Center of Journalism Report
First, let’s consider the findings from part two of media coverage on our 2016 presidential primary from the Shorenstein Center at Harvard:
The media’s obsession with Trump during the primaries meant that the Republican race was afforded far more coverage than the Democratic race, even though it lasted five weeks longer. The Republican contest got 63 percent of the total coverage between January 1 and June 7, compared with the Democrats’ 37 percent—a margin of more than three to two.
Sanders in particular struggled to get the media’s attention. Over the course of the primary season, Sanders received only two-thirds of the coverage afforded Clinton. Sanders’ coverage trailed Clinton’s in every week of the primary season. Relative to Trump, Sanders was truly a poor cousin. He received less than half of the coverage afforded Trump. Sanders received even slightly less coverage than Cruz, despite the fact that Cruz quit the race and dropped off the media’s radar screen five weeks before the final contests. For her part, Clinton got slightly less than three-fourths of the press attention given to Trump. Nevertheless, she was, except for Trump, the most heavily covered candidate during the primary period.
I remember Rachel Maddow’s first MSNBC interview with Bernie Sanders. She was almost apologetic for not having him on her show earlier. Wouldn’t you like to get the internal emails at MSNBC and CNN after their embarrassing coverage of Hillary? Can we get someone to hack into their email server so we can learn the truth?
There were protests outside CNN offices calling the network, “Clinton News Network”. Based on the Shorenstein reports, Americans had a reason to be upset. Their feelings of being slighted were real – it was our experience, not conspiracy theories.
Democratic National Committee Leaks Are Really, Really Bad
Now, when you consider the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was working behind the scenes with their media contacts to further promote Hillary Clinton ahead of Bernie Sanders, you get a real sense of the problem. Yes, not only is there evidence of election fraud across the country, but leaked emails at the DNC shows committee members also worked behind the scenes to suppress Bernie’s message of political revolution.
#DNC violated charter, favored HRC as nominee before any votes cast https://t.co/ZnbNohhoUP #DNCLeaks #OurRevolution pic.twitter.com/dNG6DCBLMb
— RoseAnn DeMoro (@RoseAnnDeMoro) July 22, 2016
For Dems Saying Not To Worry About @realDonaldTrump…@wikileaks Says This Batch of #DNCleak is Just The Beginning https://t.co/iJbr6K3jD4
— Jordan (@JordanChariton) July 24, 2016
https://t.co/776BUTzgF5
DWS running scared won’t speak at Convention.#DNCleak #BernieMustDisavow #BernieSupportersMustDisavow #FeelTheBern— Lisa Scher (@LisaScher) July 24, 2016
The #DNCleaks are all over social media, starting at Twitter (some users are claiming Twitter is suppressing the activity on Twitter). I told folks to pay attention to Wikileaks on our Facebook page since Guccifer 2 had promised to pick up where Guccifer left off.
For those who haven’t made the connection, Guccifer is the hacker who obtained emails and other documents from the Clinton Foundation which assisted the FBI in cross-referencing emails on Hillary Clinton’s personal server. These emails were chains from other email accounts, but the corresponding emails had been deleted from Hillary Clinton’s personal email account by her lawyers before handing them over to the Secretary of State/FBI. To paraphrase Director Comey, “Hillary did delete emails, but it wasn’t malicious.”
Her current problem (one of many) is she previously lied under oath when giving her testimony to Congress. Hillary specifically stated, “I did not delete emails from my personal server.” More coming on this one as Congress is sending a request to the FBI Director to have him investigate her false statements under oath.
Meanwhile, the DNC Leaks show collusion at the DNC to get Hillary elected. We already know how they had donors send money to local parties, only for that money to be extracted by the DNC. This helped donors skirt federal dollar limits.
Not to mention all the purging of voter records by local party officials in Arizona, California and New York. If this fraud occurred blatantly in these high-profile markets, we’re sure there are many others. Donald Trump was never a threat to the establishment, but Bernie Sanders was a different story. Trump was making the Republican Party look bad, but we’ve done that for four years at Muncie Voice. If the press was doing their job, there wouldn’t even be a GOP in 2016. But the GOP aren’t the only frauds in our two-party system.
Russia Interfering in U.S. Politics?
One important note is Hillary’s campaign is now claiming, “Russia is behind the hacks because they want to influence American politics.” If so, Americans should ask themselves, “Why does Russia want to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House?”
Bad Optics
Mook of @HillaryClinton campaign blames #Russia for #DNCLeak, knowing they hacked her private server…https://t.co/1GI6ItWWdB— ✪ realDeal ✪ (@NoMoreRomney) July 24, 2016
Our theory from Day 1, knowing much of the media is controlled by Wall Street, and thus aligned with the Democratic Party, Trump was being used to drown out Bernie Sanders’ New Deal message. Bernie was tapping into the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and even larger Progressive Movement. As a “Democratic Socialist” or “People First” candidate, Bernie Sanders wants to restructure how Wall Street functions, but he also pointed out how the media promotes a false narrative to keep the current power structures in place. These powerful interests have promoted their own self-interests over the American people for decades.
Bernie also taught Americans about the corrupt political structures working against the people – both political parties were frauds. This learning process is ongoing…
Donald Trump’s campaign isn’t a “People First” agenda – it’s a “Donald First” promotional event. He’s even promised to turn over domestic and foreign powers to Mike Pence.
Media Is Losing Credibility at Breakneck Speed
Harvard’s Shorenstein Center for Journalism has analyzed the data which shows the role our media played in shaping who the people would choose for presidential contenders, but now the “mass media”, or the 85% controlled by 5 companies, has a big problem. All these hacks are revealing the media is complicit by not seeking the truth. Why must the American people rely on hacks to discover these truths about people and institutions in high places? If our free and independent press were doing their jobs, all these frauds would be exposed and unable to gain a seat at the table.
If the Democratic National Convention was expecting lots of speeches about unity – those just vanished regardless of Bernie Sander’s endorsement. In fact, many are asking that he disavow her immediately. What will Bernie do?
Trump suggested that Bernie is a fraud if he doesn’t fight back and withdraw his endorsement:
The Wikileaks e-mail release today was so bad to Sanders that it will make it impossible for him to support her, unless he is a fraud!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2016
And, now that young Americans realize they have been intentionally disenfranchised from participating in our democracy, what will they do? Join the Green Party and vote for Jill Stein? Will Bernie take up Jill’s offer to run as a Green Party candidate now that Hillary has chosen a lame vice president?
Lastly, now that our national press has been outed as just another co-opted movement by monied interests, what will they do? Will they return to truth-seeking trying to regain the trust of readers/viewers/listeners, or will they quietly fold into extinction as predicted?
