Bernie Sanders slams media in a subliminal manner
Bernie Sanders knows that he needs the media being the underdog. As such he knows how to call them out even as he uses them to get his message out. The following exchange occurred recently on Meet The Press with Chuck Todd.
Chuck Todd: Let me move to the other side of the aisle, the Democratic presidential candidate, number two in the polls these days. Independent Senator from Vermont, Senator Bernie Sanders. Senator, welcome back to Meet the Press. And let me quickly ask you about this Ben Carson stuff, because you have seen some people leak out stuff you wrote 30 and 40 years ago. Is this fair game?
Bernie Sanders: No. And look, I listened to the interviews with Dr. Carson. And it’s interesting. But you know what, Chuck? The American people want to know why the middle class of this country is disappearing. Why we are 47 million people living in poverty. Why we have massive income and wealth inequality. When you look at Dr. Carson, to the best of my knowledge, this man does not believe that climate change is caused by human activity. This man wants to abolish Medicare, impacting tens of millions of seniors, and this man wants to give huge tax breaks to the rich. I think it might be a better idea, I know it’s a crazy idea, but maybe we focus on the issues impacting the American people and what candidates are saying rather than just spending so much time exploring their lives of 30 or 40 years ago. And I think the reason that so many people are turned off to the political process has a lot to do with the fact that we’re not talking about the real issues impacting real people.
That was a magical answer in so many ways. By identifying the Ben Carson hysteria as simply interesting, he relegates it to entertainment. He immediately segues into giving his pitch, what he brings, his message to the American people on Meet the Press’ dime. He then admonishes the media for spending an inordinate amount of time on issues that simply do not matter.