The Media, Not Bernie Sanders, Is Going Negative

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

10 November 15

he mostly irresponsible corporate media keeps creating stories about Bernie Sanders going negative. Let me give you an example: Jonathan Martin of The New York Times pressured Bernie Sanders with repeated questions about Hillary Clinton’s donations from employees of Goldman Sachs. More than once, Sanders said, “You will have to ask her,” but Martin pressed on. In the end, the title of his article was “Bernie Sanders Presses Hillary Clinton on Her Views on Banks.” It was Martin who did all the pressuring to create the story he may as well have already written.

The exchange took place during a press availability in Cedar Rapids in July. It was clear that Martin had his story in mind, and he pressed and pressed until Bernie said enough that he could write a story claiming that Bernie was pressuring Hillary. Maybe I shouldn’t have called Martin out individually, but I was embarrassed to be a reporter as I watched Martin act like a vulture.

More recently, we see the media trying to create conflict over Hillary’s email controversy. Article after article has seized on what they claim was Bernie changing his view on the email issue after the debate. Of course, they had to do something to tarnish the most memorable moment in the debate. The first critique was that Bernie let Hillary off the hook and gave her a gift. I didn’t see it that way at all. Bernie went into that debate with the goal of introducing himself to the American people, and I thought the “damn email” line helped to introduce him as the candidate who is authentic and telling the truth instead of making calculated statements to score points. But the corporate media couldn’t let Bernie benefit from the line of the night, so they first created the false narrative that it was a political mistake.

Sanders was asked in an interview with CNN immediately after the debate what motivated him to use the “damn emails” line. “Well, what motivated that is that I think the American people want substantive discussions on substantive issues,” Sanders said. “There is a process in place for the email situation that Hillary Clinton is dealing with. Let it play itself out. As a nation, let us start focusing on why it is that so few have so much and so many have so little.”

That was and always has been Sanders’ position. So when he told the Wall Street Journal essentially what he told CNN after the debate and has been saying for months, the vultures looking for a way to knock Bernie down started saying he had changed his tune since the debate. The Wall Street Journal article was titled “Bernie Sanders Takes Gloves Off Against Hillary Clinton in Interview.” Watch the video of the interview and judge for yourself. What has changed?

It is true, as I pointed out in my coverage of the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, that Bernie has become more “assertive” in pointing out the differences between himself and Hillary Clinton. Irresponsible and lazy journalists are making the case that he is changing tactics and going negative. They are either purposely lying or they are lazily following the pack.

I filmed a video a few months back in which a Wall Street Journal reporter tried to get Bernie to go negative on Hillary. Bernie refused to take the bait, but did lay out the differences that he thought would shape the debate.

Prior to the first debate, Sanders and his staff said their goal was to introduce him to the American people, they did that.

The strategy for debate number two is to highlight the differences between Bernie and Hillary. Pointing out those differences is not running a negative campaign. It’s not like Bernie plans to call her names or take cheap shots like Donald Trump.

Bernie Sanders will stay above the fray and debate the issues. Don’t listen to the corporate media vultures who want to frame legitimate political debate as negative attacks. The only negative aspects are how they are reporting the story to you.

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.

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