Bernie Sanders: Corporate Media is a Threat to Democracy

[portlander23]

Bernie Sanders: Corporate Media is a Threat to Democracy
Democracy Now!

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: What’s the point? The point is there are a lot of people hurting in this country. And their pain doesn’t get on CBS or NBC. And some of them, mistakenly, thought that Trump was talking to them. He talked a whole lot of stuff. We will see what, in fact, he delivers. But the main point is, please do not forget that, as we speak today, there are a whole lot of people in this country who are hurting.

What media does and what media loves is conflict and political gossip and polls and fundraising and all that stuff. What media loves is to focus on the candidates. What the American people, I believe, want is for us to focus on them, not the candidates, not anymore. And what this book does is just do that. It deals with what I think—and some of you will agree, some of you may not agree—with what I think are the major issues facing our country: the decline and disappearance of the American middle class, poverty, income and wealth inequality. But it doesn’t only lay out the problems; it provides very specific solutions.

So, we lay the issues out on the table, discuss the problems and also provide some real concrete solutions. And that’s what I think we have to do as a nation. And in terms of media, there’s a chapter that says that maybe it’s time for media to start focusing on the real issues facing our country. It was embarrassing. I read this as I wrote the book. Turns out that if you looked at, I think it was, the Sunday morning shows, Bernie Sanders alone—and I say this not to boast, but to tell you how pathetic the situation is—two-thirds of the discussion or the mention of poverty took place when I was on those shows. So what does that say about a country when there’s almost no discussion of poverty, no discussion—almost no discussion of climate change, very little discussion of income and wealth inequality, no discussion of the role of the corporate media? And I’m glad that Amy is going to be up here in a minute, because what she has done is shown that it is possible, although very difficult, to go outside of the corporate media and develop your own network. But what does corporate media talk about, what do they not talk about, where do we go forward in media is a very, very important issue.

[elleng]

1. 'What media does and what media loves is conflict and political gossip

and polls and fundraising and all that stuff. What media loves is to focus on the candidates. What the American people, I believe, want is for us to focus on them, not the candidates, not anymore.'

[onecaliberal]

2. No question

[JudyM]

3. We need to start really pounding these issues in the media, accompanied by facts and images which

inherently disprove any claims of "fake news." Have to smarten up and own the narrative far more.

Glad at least Sanders and Warren are vocalizing truth out there.

[TonyPDX]

4. Count Oregon's outspoken Senator Jeff Merkley in with Sanders and Warren.

If anyone here cares, that is.

[elleng]

5. Yes. counting him in.

Surely DO care.

[gulliver]

6. You can get a dog to walk on its hind legs.

You're never going to get the media to do what Sanders is talking about. If it did, no one would listen.

Sanders is thinking of the media from the 1980s and before. It's just childish to talk about corporate media at this point. We've reached peak media. Donald Trump, essentially an ignorant idiot, is able to toss the media around with his little finger.

[nolabear]

7. So what would be his solution?

Actual question.

[hunter]

10. Democratize the channels.

Technology today is advanced enough that we don't have to lease specific chunks of the radio spectrum to corporations. Nor do we have to tolerate telcoms like Comcast packaging television lineups. Everything a la carte.

I'd exile all conventional corporate radio and television to satellites. After that, setting up a local television or radio station would be as simple as deciding how powerful a transmitter you could support. (Electricity isn't free.) The FCC could require at least 50% local content and 100% local ownership of all terrestrial broadcasters.

Buy a transmitter, turn it on, let it automatically search for a niche in the radio spectrum. If a place was too crowded with existing stations, these existing stations would politely make room for the new guy. It would all be fully automatic, computer controlled cooperation.

Becoming a broadcaster wouldn't be much more difficult than creating a website.

Speaking of websites, everyone should enjoy moderate speed internet, even in rural areas, fast enough to support 480p streaming video at worst, and 720p nominally. With net neutrality, of course.

[NWCorona]

8. I really can't add anything else but this.

[dubyadiprecession]

9. Democracy? I thought we lived in a oligarchy?

If we're living in an oligarchy, then everything is the way it should be.