Mainstream Media vs. The People

After watching the first Democratic debate on Wednesday night I predicted what the headlines would be the next morning: “Sanders wins over more American voters”, “Clinton second to Sanders at Debate”, “Crazy Scientist Looking Guy Actually Has Good Ideas”, etc. etc. Instead I was (somewhat) surprised to see via news headlines how Hillary had “clearly won” the debate.

I was a little confused by this considering that I saw more positive words about Sanders during and after the debate via social media than for any other candidate on the stage. Bernie pulled in 1.3 million dollars from donations during the debate, more than any other candidate. If talking financially and popularity it can be proven that Sanders won the debate.  Investigating further, I saw screen shots of many different mainstream media polls, including CNN, MSNBC, and Slate, all which pointed to Sanders as having the popular vote. It seemed by morning however these polls were deleted, and support for Hillary’s victory seemed universal throughout the media.

If we look at Hillary’s donors, we can see that Time Warner has given $501,831 to the Clinton campaign over the years, and an additional $83k for the 2016 cycle. Coincidentally, Time Warner owns CNN newsgroup. Of course CNN’s agenda is a Clinton win. By the controlling mainstream media we see how America’s views are manipulated.  Looking into Hillary’s donors for 2016 I found it startling that Google has donated $58k so far to her campaign. Will we soon find our right to open internet compromised in favor of Clinton? I wouldn’t be surprised in the coming months if it is easier to find pro-Clinton information online than any information opposing Clinton or positive information about Sanders. Checkout Clinton’s donors for 2016 here.

Should we be surprised by Clinton’s appearance on SNL? NBCUniversal owns the network, who is a donor to the Clinton 2016 campaign.

In the midst of all of this, the mess that DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has made of the debate schedule only favors mainstream media more. In a piece this morning from Bloomburg, fellow vice-chairs and reps spoke out about the Chairwoman’s dictator ways in choosing to only hold 6 democratic debates. In 2007 there were 21 democratic debates held before the Iowa Caucus on January 3rd, 2008. The huge variance in democratic debates is an outrage to democracy. The fact that Wasserman Schultz was co-chair of Clinton’s 2008 campaign should be considered as a conflict of interest in her role as head of the DNC. Obviously she has stacked the deck in Clinton’s favor. I believe its safe to assume that Wasserman Schultz didn’t make this decision solely by herself, but by the help of Clinton’s top donors.

I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised by the injustice to democracy via mainstream media, however I am frustrated. It is the power of large corporations such as Time Warner, NBCUniversal, Comcast, and Google who will filter what the American people get to see and learn about the candidates. Information is at their discretion. I just hope that the momentum of change continues and that those who share this frustration will understand the obligation they have to inform those around us who may not realize how serious this issue is.