News channels and mass media have always played an influential role in American culture, often creating a sensational story by displaying bias and blowing things out of proportion. In the 2016 political race, it's much more profitable for them to headline with scandalous statements said by candidates, rather than focusing on educating the public about the candidate's stances. While mainstream media has created more damage to the GOP (and Trump in particular) than to the Democratic party, Bernie Sanders, the consistent politician that he is, has always been against the press and their way of twisting words to create a story. He doesn't flip-flop all the time over his beliefs "on labor, Wall Street, the banks, poverty, socialism, education, the environment, women's rights, income disparities, foreign policy, and the woes of the middle class". Mass media, or what he refers to as "corporate media" tends to trivialize the important issues- if they cover them at all. "It wants to cover campaign fights, not campaign debates. It over-relies on entertaining soundbites. Its news agenda is about generating profits, not producing quality journalism that will "educate" the voters. And as powerful as the corporate media is, it seeks even more concentrated power through acquisition and consolidation". Basically, the media is produced by the rich, and is no longer being used effectively, or for the right reason.
I definitely agree with Bernie Sanders on the fact that mainstream media isn't focused on education or honesty, but rather profit. It's hard to keep a consumer's attention for longer than 30 seconds, so soundbites are very effective, but can also be detrimental. There are people who only watch Fox News and believe every word that those "reporters" say aloud on national television. Many of those same people also believe that Sanders is a socialist set out to destroy the nation, but I believe that Bernie Sanders is right, in more ways than one. He displays his strength of character by continuously refusing to talk badly about another candidate (namely Clinton) and refusing to sink down to the levels that the media wants him to. Like our nation, mainstream media is in dire need of modification and revision.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/10/bernie-sanders-vs-the-press-213235
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ReplyDeleteIf it took Bernie Sanders this long to figure out that the media exists to sell itself he should drop out of the race right now. The media is not supposed to be controlled solely by the government (or else critics would call it propaganda) so it is natural that large corporations have considerable influence over what citizens see. After all, if they don't get viewers to watch their channels, they go bankrupt. So in a way, media needs to to be messed up and biased in order to fulfill their main purpose of selling itself while spreading information.
ReplyDeleteI also find it unfair and a bit ironic for you to cherrypick Fox News, a conservative news network, and slander them while disregarding MSNBC, a liberal news network, in a post about the lack of objectivity in media.
The media has always been an outlet to inform the people no matter how much of the it was really the truth. The news sells stories by delivering scandalous tales and stretching the truth. Bernie Sanders should expect the media to twist his words as they would do in any situation. The job of the media is to feed into the public desire which unfortunately is not truth but instead gossip.
ReplyDeleteLike Emmaly has said, media today is all about entertainment. As long as consumers and the public are happy being fed by the information news teams have been covering, these programs will continue releasing whatever sells. What sells is controversy and things that are "out there". While I do admire that Bernie has been an honest man who has not jumped around in his stances and has not attacker his opponents, he must have known that the media will not be all too wild to focus in on him.
ReplyDeleteI definitely understand why voters would see Bernie's staunch consistency on issues as a selling point. However, can't we say that the contrary is true too? A Politico article brought up this exact issue: "Bernie Sanders’ uncompromising nature is fatal to the electability case (even “conviction” candidates like Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan shaded some rough edges in order to win)." (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/10/how-could-hillary-clinton-lose-213233#ixzz3oMUStHtz) I feel like, although his ideas reveal a genuine care for the populace, they may be too radical, and his self-proclaimed socialist title might dissuade the common voter. He has a resolute conviction on issues, but that might actually be his downfall come election time.
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