--A DNC led by Debbie Wasserman Schultz blatantly tipping the scales for Hillary Clinton
--The experience and skill and passion of Sanders (Yes, he's awful on foreign policy compared to Jill Stein or my ideal)
I never thought the media would try to hound Bernie out of the race until January or February, because obviously a "race" makes for better ratings and easier "reporting" for them. So whether Bernie threatens media power really remains to be seen. If the media continues and expands on its recent attacks, and he doesn't go down, then yes Bernie will have been a threat to the media's power, as well as a (very welcome) threat to my view of the media's power.
JB: How much of a difference do the alternate and social media really make and how do we measure that?
DS: That's a very good question. I'm used to seeing these new media as minor hangers on, with stories really driven by the corporate media. Out of 1,000 peace actions, the corporate media picks one (Cindy Sheehan in Texas) and makes it a story, and then decides it's not a story anymore. We ride along while they carry us, and then we're dropped. Out of 100 attempts to start occupying encampments, the New York media, with help from a violent mayor and police force, pick one. Everybody reproduces it everywhere because it's on teevee, and shuts down in most places because it's off TV -- not for other reasons.
Clearly the internet has grown. There are more people on it. More of them are on it for a lot of hours. Social media has developed dramatically in recent years. More people are doing online activism, making small donations, etc. But does this mean that individuals and independent media can drive the discourse, can think what the corporate media tells them not to think? I'd love to believe it. I'd love to believe we have that communications capacity and that resistance to the discredited establishment. I'm afraid, however, that it may not quite be true.
A lot of people, when polled, would pick a cheese sandwich over Hillary Clinton. Along comes an experienced and fairly well-known senator with some excitement and some principled integrity (on domestic issues). The media doesn't attack him very hard. It's not so terribly shocking that he's done well. And once he was doing well in polls, Martin O'Malley was also largely shut out of the media for trailing in the polls. What will happen, though, when the media goes after Sanders with everything it has? What will happen when he becomes known as Raise-Your-Taxes Sanders because he won't cut military spending and so ends up including tax hikes in his proposals? What will happen when he's labeled a leftist, a sexist, a racist, a gun advocate, an enemy of healthcare, a feeble old man, and 18 other things until one sticks and becomes the story of the week? I don't think the online and internet media's growth has been accompanied by the state of mind needed to resist such propaganda. I hope I'm wrong.
JB: With such a non-responsive media, either focusing on the wrong thing or ignoring something that should receive attention, can we push back? And if so, how?
DS:
--Stop watching and reading it
--Stop producing independent media that just follows the corporate media's topics
--Understand and act on our own ability to report and read news
--Understand the corporate media's practice of demobilizing and disempowering and don't fall for it
--Make graphics:
JB: You piqued my interest earlier when you mentioned candidates that you favor. Jill Stein and your "ideal". Who are they and what makes you prefer them?
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