If you tend to read mostly conservative sites you’re probably used to stories about media bias. With very few exceptions, cable news is largely in the tank for Democrats and liberal agenda items, and the coverage they receive is almost always conveyed in a more favorable light. The FCC is essentially powerless to control what happens on cable news in terms of bias, but they still receive plenty of complaints about it. During this campaign season however, they’ve been the recipients of a new breed of kvetching and it’s coming primarily from activists who are Feeling the Bern. Over at The Hill, they’ve obtained FCC records of hundreds of angry letters from supporters of Bernie Sanders who are blaming the media for Hillary Clinton’s continued lead in the Democratic primary race.
A review of about 850 complaints to the Federal Communications Commission about the three major cable news networks throughout the campaign season found that one of the most popular objections came against CNN in the days after the first Democratic debate last October.
In what looked to be a coordinated effort, more than 160 complaints alleging CNN bias in favor of Hillary Clinton were filed. The complaints pushed a now-debunked story claiming the cable news network deleted favorable polling that showed Bernie Sanders won the debate.
“CNN hosting the debate while backing Hillary Clinton. There [sic] phony polls and editing of the debate,” read one October complaint to the FCC originating from Layton Utah. “Bernie Sanders not getting a fair shot!”
Though somewhat misguided, the flood of complaints highlights the reach of the digital army of Sanders supporters, who have become a force on Reddit, Facebook and other social media platforms.
I’m sure conservatives everywhere will join me in telling Sanders’ supporters, welcome to the party, pal.
Their complaints may fall on deaf ears, however. Despite the fact that there is an ocean of material out there which could be used to depict Sanders in a particularly harsh light (the guy is self professed socialist for Pete’s sake), I’ve never noticed his media coverage on CNN or MSNBC coming across as particularly harsh. Commentators are usually trying to find ways to compliment Bernie and his supporters in an effort to bring them into the Clinton camp. In fact, the only real knock I see against him is the same one which is frequently leveled against Ted Cruz and John Kasich… you can’t get enough delegates to earn the nomination, so why are you still here? That may be unpleasant for the Bernie Bros to hear, but it’s not exactly unfair.
While I’m trying to sympathize with the complaints here, the Sanders folks really need to get a grip on reality. If they want to experience some actual media bias they should try hanging out with the Republicans for a while. In one of the ugliest of many such moments just in the past week or so, the riots that took place outside of a Trump event in California were caught on tape and replayed on CNN’s morning show. We all saw the footage… a Trump supporter was beaten, bandaged and bloodied while leftists stomped on a police cruiser and smashed in its windows. After Matt Lewis described them with the still fairly mild tag of “leftist agitators” he was corrected by CNN’s Chris Cuomo, who insisted they were simply dissatisfied citizens. (BIZPAC Review)
Commentator Matt Lewis called the crowd a group of “leftist agitators,” but Cuomo was quick to correct him, deeming that term too harsh for the violent rioters.
“Juana, now Matt is using the term “leftist agitator” to keep it in the political sphere, but, as we know, a lot of those people on that street were just dissatisfied citizens who were taking out their dissatisfaction the wrong way in anger and destroying a lot of property there,” Cuomo said. “But what does it speak to there in terms of the climate in which this general election will take place?”
That may sound too far off the charts for reality, so here’s the video to serve as proof.
Taken in that context, Bernie’s fans should really tone down the carping a bit. Having the cable news spokesmodels ask why your guy keeps losing primary elections is far from the worst they can dish out and you’ve really been leading something of a blessed life in terms of the favoritism they show toward Hillary Clinton.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member