I was glad to see this grudging article in this morning's Los Angeles Times about Bernie's major money haul of small contributors made the front page of the august paper. I say "grudging" because the content of the article would have been breathless had it been Kamala Harris or Cory Booker with the big money haul, and there would have been a quote or two from political commentators or strategists about "momentum," and how the party should want to come together early to avoid a grueling primary. Nope. None of that here.
I have a vain hope enough Americans will be able to learn to discern corporate media bias in how information is presented, how information is not presented and hidden, and how much editorializing there is in "straight news" articles in newspapers. Cable news remains a poisonous horror show of noise, with much of the focus on whether Biden should not have hugged men and especially women over the years, and how his "I did not mean anything by it" is just a different generation trying to accommodate to cultural changes that seem, for us older folks, very abrupt--and of course the rest of the time is Trump and whatever Outrage of the Day FoxNews thinks some "libtard" has said or implied. And I admit to holding little hope that enough Americans will see through "unity" and "biography candidate" rhetoric and not mistake such rhetoric for substance with regard to matters of public policy.
And really, Mayor Pete gets 35% of the money Bernie gets, and in national polling is at 3%, with larger donations per donor than Bernie's donor base, and, now, Mayor Pete is a rock star? And note how both he and Harris are way behind in the money race, yet still were given hopeful language in the article. Just think about what it would have been for Bernie had it been the other way around. That is how one may also evaluate the manner in which information is presented. The interesting thing is how the article expressed almost surprise that Warren especially, and less so Gillibrand, have failed to catch fire. And there is no mention of Beto not releasing his quarterly haul numbers, or how many donors gave how much to his campaign--just a mention that he raised more than Warren. It is funny how, overall, the money race was used to promote Hillary Clinton, with her big donor donations, and how the media does not quite capture the miraculous haul Sanders has attained with small donations from regular folks. The argument I have heard, "We should not talk about money," is largely correct. However, the way in which Sanders has raised money, and his major attendance campaign appearances, are quite extraordinary when we reflect on how this compares to the usual way Obama and the Clintons raised money and promoted their respective candidacies. Funny how we don't quite read or hear that juxtaposition in most corporate media presentations. We know these corporate media people are not completely stupid, but we do know they are compromised by their positions vis a vis their bosses to whom they ultimately report.
I honestly have no clue whether Biden will announce he is running, but I am intrigued by the pushback on his behalf that has begun among celebrities (Whoppie Goldberg with the wildest comment, which I only saw mentioned in right wing media, which must religiously watch The View, I suppose), and, more substantively, a woman who was outed in a photograph she says was most definitely not a MeToo moment. If Biden announces his latest presidential candidacy, it adds a rancorous dimension to the race of a type perfectly fitted for cable news television and talk radio. Biden remains, with less engaged voters, a liberal shining star in Obama's bigger shining star, which explains how Biden leads or is second in polling in various states, at least per the usually reliable Emerson polling entity. Bernie is right behind, or sometimes ahead, as in New Hampshire.
I have long said this is a Biden v. Bernie race if Biden enters, and Biden's star falls far more than not as people learn of his public policy record. Bernie has dropped some as the Hillary-bots have done their best to demonize him, and the pathetic way in which Biden advisers were blaming Bernie for the imbroglio their candidate is suffering is par for the course. That other candidates such as Warren and Gillibrand were taking Lucy Flores' side before Bernie finally spoke up about it was completely ignored, as this was a political push from Biden, who knows his opponent is Bernie, not anyone else.
Oh well. The slog has only begun, and we will see how things, ahem, progress.
