Brian4Liberty
08-08-2016, 04:44 PM
Wikileaks Reveals Mainstream Media’s Coziness With Clinton (http://observer.com/2016/08/wikileaks-reveals-mainstream-medias-coziness-with-clinton/)
The DNC should apologize for manipulating major news coverage
By Michael Sainato • 08/08/16
Over the last few weeks, FiveThirtyEight’s forecasts for who will win the presidential election transitioned from a virtual tie between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, to Clinton now taking an 81.7 percent chance of victory compared to 18.3 percent for Trump. At the end of July, polls were bouncing back and forth between Clinton and Trump, but recent polls show Clinton with leads as high as 14 points.
No policy stances have changed in either the Trump or Clinton campaigns during the past two weeks. Trump has provoked negative publicity with boorish comments, but given his entire presidential campaign so far, this isn’t out of the ordinary. The seemingly impressionable voter base that falls in line behind mainstream reporting is alarming. The media’s impact on elections shouldn’t be underestimated. It does, however, illuminates the importance of objectivity and balance from the mainstream press, which has been particularly lacking this campaign season.
The July Wikileaks release of nearly 20,000 Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails validated the concerns of Bernie Sanders supporters that the DNC helped rig the primary election for Clinton. These emails provided a glimpse into how the DNC and the mainstream media work together in providing public relations support for the Democratic establishment.
Rather than informing voters to enrich democracy, the mainstream media has developed a feedback loop between support for particular candidates and the political agenda they intend to support. The freedom of the press is necessary for a democracy to function. This freedom was subverted by the DNC at the consent of the mainstream media outlets. Instead of remaining autonomous, they allowed themselves to be manipulated by the DNC to back Clinton’s coronation as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Some of the emails released show both CNN and Politico had articles pre-approved by the DNC prior to publication.
...
The Wikileaks emails revealed that The Washington Post hosted a joint fundraiser with the Clinton campaign, although the Post was unlisted at the fundraiser. “We were never going to list since the lawyers told us we cannot do it,” DNC Finance Director Jordan Kaplan wrote to DNC Election Strategies Adviser Anu Rangappa.
DNC Communications Director Miranda leaked a letter Sanders wrote to the DNC in early May to Wall Street Journal reporter Laura Meckler, who used it to write a hit piece on Sanders.
...
After MSNBC correspondent Mika Brzezinski criticized Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and called for her to resign as DNC chairperson, she complained to host Chuck Todd, ultimately calling MSNBC’s president Phil Griffin to have his network stop the negative coverage of her. “This is the LAST straw. Please call Phil Griffin. This is outrageous. She needs to apologize,” Wasserman Schultz wrote in an email.
Although not implicated directly in the DNC emails released by WikiLeaks, Facebook did admit that they blocked links to the website after the leak.
...
Sanders supporters have criticized mainstream media outlets throughout the primaries for either blacking out coverage of their candidate, or unfairly covering him with inaccurate smear campaigns—such as the Bernie Bros narrative—to discredit his viability. The Wikileaks emails provide some vindication to these claims, once dismissed as conspiracy theories, that the DNC and Clinton campaign fed propaganda to mainstream media outlets to help her win the primaries.
...
More: http://observer.com/2016/08/wikileaks-reveals-mainstream-medias-coziness-with-clinton/
The DNC should apologize for manipulating major news coverage
By Michael Sainato • 08/08/16
Over the last few weeks, FiveThirtyEight’s forecasts for who will win the presidential election transitioned from a virtual tie between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, to Clinton now taking an 81.7 percent chance of victory compared to 18.3 percent for Trump. At the end of July, polls were bouncing back and forth between Clinton and Trump, but recent polls show Clinton with leads as high as 14 points.
No policy stances have changed in either the Trump or Clinton campaigns during the past two weeks. Trump has provoked negative publicity with boorish comments, but given his entire presidential campaign so far, this isn’t out of the ordinary. The seemingly impressionable voter base that falls in line behind mainstream reporting is alarming. The media’s impact on elections shouldn’t be underestimated. It does, however, illuminates the importance of objectivity and balance from the mainstream press, which has been particularly lacking this campaign season.
The July Wikileaks release of nearly 20,000 Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails validated the concerns of Bernie Sanders supporters that the DNC helped rig the primary election for Clinton. These emails provided a glimpse into how the DNC and the mainstream media work together in providing public relations support for the Democratic establishment.
Rather than informing voters to enrich democracy, the mainstream media has developed a feedback loop between support for particular candidates and the political agenda they intend to support. The freedom of the press is necessary for a democracy to function. This freedom was subverted by the DNC at the consent of the mainstream media outlets. Instead of remaining autonomous, they allowed themselves to be manipulated by the DNC to back Clinton’s coronation as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Some of the emails released show both CNN and Politico had articles pre-approved by the DNC prior to publication.
...
The Wikileaks emails revealed that The Washington Post hosted a joint fundraiser with the Clinton campaign, although the Post was unlisted at the fundraiser. “We were never going to list since the lawyers told us we cannot do it,” DNC Finance Director Jordan Kaplan wrote to DNC Election Strategies Adviser Anu Rangappa.
DNC Communications Director Miranda leaked a letter Sanders wrote to the DNC in early May to Wall Street Journal reporter Laura Meckler, who used it to write a hit piece on Sanders.
...
After MSNBC correspondent Mika Brzezinski criticized Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and called for her to resign as DNC chairperson, she complained to host Chuck Todd, ultimately calling MSNBC’s president Phil Griffin to have his network stop the negative coverage of her. “This is the LAST straw. Please call Phil Griffin. This is outrageous. She needs to apologize,” Wasserman Schultz wrote in an email.
Although not implicated directly in the DNC emails released by WikiLeaks, Facebook did admit that they blocked links to the website after the leak.
...
Sanders supporters have criticized mainstream media outlets throughout the primaries for either blacking out coverage of their candidate, or unfairly covering him with inaccurate smear campaigns—such as the Bernie Bros narrative—to discredit his viability. The Wikileaks emails provide some vindication to these claims, once dismissed as conspiracy theories, that the DNC and Clinton campaign fed propaganda to mainstream media outlets to help her win the primaries.
...
More: http://observer.com/2016/08/wikileaks-reveals-mainstream-medias-coziness-with-clinton/