MSNBC and the Media Blackout on Bernie Sanders

MSNBC is putting a media blackout on Bernie Sanders. Its greatest offense was when it dismissed Ed Schultz.

The word behind the cancellation is that MSNBC's corporate masters, Comcast ordered the firing, over Schultz's coverage of the Trans Pacific Partnership (PPP), as reported by Alternet in "MSNBC Cans Only Cable TV Host Who Extensively Covered TPP."

Have any doubts? Read here:

It has to be noted that Comcast, the company that owns MSNBC, is a big supporter of the TPP. Comcast hired a phalanx of lobbyists to spearhead a targeted campaign to push for Trade Promotion Authority, which recently passed. Included among the individuals it was paying was the former chief of staff for former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA).

Act now, while the momentum and popular outrage over Schultz's dismissal is still fresh. Please sign the petitions of protest over the firing at MoveOn and at Change.org.

The national paper of record likewise is doing a poor job, with an implicit political agenda. See the analysis at Alternet, "Why Is the NY Times Basically Doing a Blackout on Bernie Sanders? The New York Times' Sanders coverage is intellectually dishonest."

Thom Hartmann has given a few analyses of the media blackout of Sanders, earlier this summer, in "The Media's "Wave of Silence” on Sen. Bernie Sanders & Why" and in the last week, in "The Bernie Sanders News Blackout Continues...."

MSNBC gave an early view of how it was going to bat for Clinton and against Sanders when it gave extended time to Claire McCaskill of Missouri as she engaged in hyperbole, trying to make Sanders out to be an extremist, far beyond acceptable boundaries of American politics. Click here for the video of McCaskill redbaiting Sanders.

You can push social issues and fair treatment for different communities, as when the station points out inhumane policies regarding women's reproductive rights, Republican obstruction against marriage equality or other goals for LGBT fairness, or runaway police violence against unarmed black people. But do not ever tread on issues of economic power. Otherwise Comcast will make sure that you get the axe.

And what has the MSNBC tone been like on the station since the decision to let Ed Schultz go?

It is grasping at arcane side-distractions to divert attention from the surging momentum behind Bernie Sanders. A prime example of this is its pundits' steady drumbeat for Vice President Joe Biden to enter the race. Beyond this, it is just approaching candidates on a personality focus, instead of giving attention to the candidates' positions on the issues, such as Biden's personal tragedy of losing his son to brain cancer.

However, voters will realize that Biden is just another mainstream Washington politician, with too long a record of supporting corporations.

Twitter and other social media users, use this hashtag to protest MSNBC's firing of Sanders: #StopBernieBlackout

POSTSCRIPT:
Until this evening, the only major cable news network reporting Bernie Sanders' mere six percentage point margin behind Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire was none other Fox News.  CNN and MSNBC today restricted their reportage to push speculation of a Joe Biden candidacy. They noted Clinton's persistently weak poll numbers. Yet, if her numbers were weak, shouldn't the networks report which candidate was cutting into her potential support? --That is Bernie Sanders? No, they never uttered her name. Yet, it was Fox News that this evening reported the six digit difference. Only in the evening of August 4 did MSNBC report online the news of the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that showed the Democratic presidential nomination race to be tightening between Clinton and Sanders in New Hampshire. A WUMR TV poll reported the same narrow margin between Clinton and Sanders.

Don't give the facts, ma'am; health care rallies are about distrusting government

It's crazy: people from the lower half of society, often lacking health care or enduring financial abuse from insurance companies, are overcome with anger about Congress' proposals (plural, as the House and Senate variations need reconciliation) to reform health care. These tea-bagging yahoos, inspired by lies from FoxNews, are disrupting the public aspect of American republicanism, town meetings.

Michael McAuliff did a great job of doing undercover reporting at the rallies, interviewing the hot-head right-wingers. Important also in his "New York Daily News" report (Sunday, August 30, 2009) was the analysis by academic Carol Weisser (University of Florida).

APALACHICOLA, Fla. - In government, they do not trust.

And there's no way they'll let Uncle Sam run their health care - even if they have none. Even if they already have government-run care, like Medicare, and wouldn't give it up.

"I believe this bill is literally a death bill," said Pam Olsen, a mother of four who has no insurance.

And it doesn't seem to matter what officials say to the contrary.

To find out why, the Daily News made under-the-radar visits last week to contentious town hall meetings in the Florida panhandle district of conservative Democratic Rep. Allen Boyd.

The answer was opponents trust more what they're learning on their own from Internet activist sites, e-mails sent around by folks they know and talk show hosts like Glenn Beck.

Some of the fervor can be blamed on the "Astroturfing" of opponents who seed talking points in grass-roots networks.

But town hall attendees - unaware they were talking to a reporter - said they came to their opinions on their own and were happy to point to sources like Beck, the Web-based 9/12 Project and ResistNet, plus their own research. Some said they maintained their own e-mail networks to spread the truth as they see it.

It all produced a powerful and uniform set of gripes in three standing-room only, hours-long forums attended by The News.

In the minds of many folks packing the sessions, federal intervention in health care will only hurt, and could even doom, the nation.

Signs outside Tallahassee's City Hall were especially extreme. "Obama is not a Nazi - he's worse," declared one. "Das Kapital," proclaimed another, renaming the nation's Capitol after a Karl Marx tome.

Inside, people were more polite, but no less afraid.

"I am a single uninsured mother of an uninsured child, and yet still do not want the government involved in my health care," declared a woman who identified herself as "Jane Doe" because she wanted to protect herself and her daughter from "attacks."

"Our country is going down the wrong path right now. It's going down the path to socialism," said Olsen.

"We the people are afraid that we're being taken over," said another woman to loud applause.

Plenty of Floridians back health care reform, and many turned out in Tallahassee.

But outside the state's capital city, few believed anything good could come from health reform. Even when Boyd, their congressman, said their fears were baseless, it didn't make a difference.

Asked in the Gulf Coast town of Port St. Joe if he'd back provisions to help illegal immigrants, Boyd emphatically denied they were covered.

"There is no - zero, zippity-doo-dah, none - coverage for illegal immigrants," Boyd said, drawing boos and disbelief.

Mike Horan, a Medicare and Veteran's Administration health care recipient with a doctorate in education and a master's degree in social work, wasn't buying what he heard from Boyd in Apalachicola.

"If you think that the federal government can do anything better than private enterprise, show me the agency," he said.

Janice Williamson, who has built her own e-mail list, was so unhappy with Boyd's answers she vowed to "do everything" she could to fight his reelection.

The open disbelief, said Florida State University politics Prof. Carol Weisser, marks a new and disturbing trend.

"We know that trust in government is low," she said. "But there's always been this split where people still like their own congressman."

Suddenly, constituents prefer the flood of scary information from TV and the Internet.

"The communications are what's different, and somehow people are believing them, even though they've got someone they voted for and like telling them otherwise," Weisser said.

University of Missouri Prof. Peverill Squire says the fear isn't just about health care.

"People are desperately trying to hold on to what they may have, and they're fearful that whatever comes out of this debate is going to leave them worse off," he said.

"They fear they're going to get screwed."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/08/30/2009-08-30_fear__loathing_fuel_health_care_forums.html#ixzz0PoCLXLAJ