╌>

Democratic contenders unload on news media - The Hill

  
Via:  Nerm_L  •  5 years ago  •  5 comments


Democratic contenders unload on news media - The Hill
If they had to withstand what Trump goes through with the media on a daily basis they’d probably have to go find a safe space to sit in.

Sponsored by group News Viners

News Viners

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



The Democratic presidential contenders are letting loose with a barrage of attacks against the news media, ripping national outlets for what they view as biased coverage of their campaigns or unfair double standards in covering President Trump.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is leading the way, making his grievances with “corporate media” central to his anti-establishment campaign.

The Sanders campaign took it up a notch this week, calling out CNN and NBC by name and making the case that The Washington Post is covering him negatively because he’s been critical of the newspaper’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos.

Top media personalities are firing back at Sanders and accusing him of taking a page from Trump, who routinely attacks major outlets such as The New York Times and CNN as "fake news." 

But Sanders is far from the only Democratic candidate to vent frustration with the media’s campaign coverage.

A top surrogate for former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign lashed out at reporters this week for giving outsized coverage to the former vice president’s recent verbal gaffes. 

And former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) and former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro (D) have both blasted the press for what they describe as applying too light of a touch with Trump on issues pertaining to race.

The criticism of the media comes after Democrats have spent years warning that Trump’s attacks against the press have undermined trust in an institution they describe as a pillar of a functioning democracy.

But Democrats say their own critiques don’t remotely approach the president’s “enemy of the people” rhetoric. Rather, they say it’s the result of frustration from individual candidates that their messages are not cutting through the noise of a 24-person field. 

“Democrats are not trying to completely tear down the Fourth Estate and they’re not putting journalists in danger, like the president is doing,” said Andrew Feldman, a Democratic strategist with a focus on media relations. “But the ultimate goal for a campaign is to get their message across, and it can be very frustrating when that doesn’t happen.”

----------

Biden’s allies are frustrated by the media coverage, believing the press is creating a false equivalence between run-of-the-mill misstatements and Trump’s myriad scandals.

Biden spokeswoman Symone Sanders, a former CNN contributor, chastised the national media in a testy exchange on CNN over what she described as an obsession with minor miscues.

"I want to be very clear — this is a press narrative, not a voter narrative,” Sanders said about coverage of Biden’s gaffes. "If you were to look at the coverage in Iowa this weekend and juxtapose the local newspapers and local television coverage to national media coverage, you would have thought these reporters were at two different events.”

----------

The criticism has sparked conversations in newsrooms over how to cover Trump’s racial controversies, particularly after The New York Times was criticized for a front-page headline that described a speech by Trump as an attempt to heal racial divisions after the El Paso mass shooting and a separate one in Dayton, Ohio, the same weekend.

“American journalism and American journalists are so steeped in a ‘both sides’ dynamic that they find it difficult, I think, to address this moment,” Castro said in Iowa over the weekend. “It’s especially hard for news reporters who feel like they can’t break out of character.”

Republicans are rolling their eyes, believing that the media is snapping to attention to respond to criticism from Democrats, who they see as softened by the expectation of favorable coverage, compared to what they believe conservatives endure.

----------

Seeder's note:  Only selected excerpts have been included in the post.  Click on the seed link to read the full article.


Tags

jrGroupDiscuss - desc
[]
 
Nerm_L
Professor Expert
1  seeder  Nerm_L    5 years ago

When does the Fourth Estate become a Fifth Column?

 
 
 
Nerm_L
Professor Expert
1.1  seeder  Nerm_L  replied to  Nerm_L @1    5 years ago

Note that one of the selected excerpts is Bernie Sanders defending Joe Biden against the press's proclivity to focus attention on gaffes.  The press is essentially condensing Joe Biden's campaign down to a series tweets that highlight gaffes.

Another interesting point from the article is that the press is using comparisons to Trump the same way that Democrats use racial politics.  The press is claiming to be a victim of Trumpism and anyone attacking the press is just like Trump.

The charge of 'fake news' is more apt than the partisan class are willing to acknowledge.

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
2  Tacos!    5 years ago

Is it really so hard to just report what happened and let the readers decide what it means?

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
3  Buzz of the Orient    5 years ago

It's so sad to see how the media has declined to such a low level of adherence to the principles of good journalism.  Having been the Editor-in-Chief of my university newspaper for almost two years, back in the days when an award was given for the most unbiased medium, and back then the deserved winner was The Christian Science Monitor, which we used as our model for both format and content, but unfortunately even it has made a left turn since then.  I have pointed out previously the techniques the news media uses to create a bias in its readers and viewers which I'll not bother to repeat for a third or fourth time on this site, but I think nobody here is so lacking in intelligence as to need to be convinced of it.

These days we are relegated to not believing anything we read or hear, and, thanks to photoshopping and video editing techniques, only half of what we actually see with our own eyes.

 
 

Who is online

Drinker of the Wry
JohnRussell
Outis
devangelical


63 visitors