In an interview with CNN's Ryan Nobles, Bernie Sanders blamed an "anybody but Bernie" media elite for his failure to win the Democratic Party nomination for president in 2020. Here's the quote:
SANDERS: I think what we saw from Nevada on out was a cry from the rooftops, from the political establishment, from the media that they wanted anybody but Bernie. Anybody but Bernie! My God, I don't know how many articles they were about, we need anybody but Bernie and, you know, they ended up succeeding. And that's that.
CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza wrote an article that basically said "Baloney."
In just a few sentences, Sanders a) lumps the media in with the "political establishment" as actors working to keep him from the nomination and b) lambastes the number of articles allegedly written seeking "anybody but Bernie."
How on Earth is the "mainstream" media not part of the "political establishment"? CNN analysts think Fox News is an integral part of the Trump political operation, but can't imagine anyone would say CNN and MSNBC help make decisions inside the Democratic Party.
Cillizza noted Sanders ran against media billionaires in his fundraising. In August 2019, Sanders sent an email to supporters that said: "[C]orporate and billionaire-owned media often tilts coverage against candidates ... who push a working-class agenda -- an agenda that threatens the political power of corporations and billionaires."
The CNN guru had to acknowledge MSNBC became a major bone of contention after Chris Matthews compared Sanders winning Nevada to the Nazi takeover of France in 1940 (which led to the fall of Matthews). Uproar inside the Democratic base led to MSNBC trying to quell the outrage among their socialist audience members.
But evidence of some sort of broad-scale effort by the media to keep Sanders from winning? There's not much of that to be had. And by blaming the media for his defeat, Sanders takes credit away from the remarkable comeback that Joe Biden, the presumptive nominee, who he formally endorsed just this week, engineered.
The Point: The media is an easy scapegoat. But not always the right one.
Cillizza would be correct if he was saying the media elites showed any fraction of the hostility to Bernie Sanders over the last year that they routinely show to Donald Trump. But it's also true that once Bernie's path to victory looked grim, they were part of the establishment who wanted to wrap it up.
