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Fawke Em

(11,366 posts)
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 07:02 PM Mar 2016

Pundits and major networks ignore Bernie Sanders at risk of their own increasing irrelevance

The pollsters didn’t see it coming, and the pundits told us time and again it was impossible.



Earlier this year, Michal Rozworski and I wrote, “For some time now, mainstream political commentators have been throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Sanders to dissuade primary voters from taking his campaign seriously. These pundits, presenting themselves as hard-headed realists while wagging their fingers, try to explain away Sanders’ growing public appeal. They are unwilling, and seemingly unable, to look fairly at what the campaign is proposing and how that might relate to people’s lives.”

In the lead up to Michigan, an army of smug pundits churned out commentary dismissing Sanders based on polls, overshadowing the real issues at play for progressive voters in the state. Sanders’ campaign spent big on ads highlighting his opposition to corporate trade and investment deals like NAFTA and the TPP. This direct appeal to blue collar and working class communities in Michigan, framed by Sanders’ relentless critique of Wall Street and of class inequality in the United States, obviously paid off.


https://ricochet.media/en/1009/bernie-sanders-and-the-coming-media-revolution

For extra fun, read Matthew Yglesias's thread from the Tweet above:

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/705099214913708032?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

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Pundits and major networks ignore Bernie Sanders at risk of their own increasing irrelevance (Original Post) Fawke Em Mar 2016 OP
If they had just looked at the rallies. If someone is willing to stand in a line for 4 hours, LiberalArkie Mar 2016 #1
Pollsters and classical economists share a trait StandingInLeftField Mar 2016 #3
LOL...where did the MSM get the idea they are are relevant anymore?? CharlotteVale Mar 2016 #2
From themselves, apparently. Fawke Em Mar 2016 #5
The media, pundits and political elite are clueless JFKDem62 Mar 2016 #4
They get paid to make wild ass guesses. Erich Bloodaxe BSN Mar 2016 #6
Batman reacts: merkins Mar 2016 #7
I'm ignoring then pundits and risking nothing. Impedimentus Mar 2016 #8

LiberalArkie

(15,686 posts)
1. If they had just looked at the rallies. If someone is willing to stand in a line for 4 hours,
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 07:07 PM
Mar 2016

in the rain or snow just to hear a politician speak, then why would they not spend a few minutes in a line to vote?

I don't think that ever occurred to them.

And if those same people could chip in a cough up more money than Wall Street was doing for Hillary, shouldn't they be expected to vote for him also.

I do not think logic is a strong thing for them.

3. Pollsters and classical economists share a trait
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 07:15 PM
Mar 2016

of focusing almost exclusively on the numbers while ignoring social context. This is slowly changing with the new generation, but doesn't seem to have had much of an impact on the "experts" called upon by the MSM.

JFKDem62

(383 posts)
4. The media, pundits and political elite are clueless
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 07:24 PM
Mar 2016

There is a seismic shift right before them and they cannot see it.
They still operate under the old rules, but those rules are being changed as we speak
by the American people.

Erich Bloodaxe BSN

(14,733 posts)
6. They get paid to make wild ass guesses.
Wed Mar 9, 2016, 07:45 PM
Mar 2016

Why on earth anyone ever listens to any pundit for more than a couple of cycles is beyond me, given how incredibly wrong most of them are most of the time.

As a fun aside, I just got a robocall Republican poll (for Ohio) and screwed with them wildly. Told em I was a well-to-do older registered, guaranteed deeply conservative Republican voter who was going to vote for Trump, and hated Kasich and Cruz. Told em my top interest was jobs and the economy, (because quite frankly all of their options sucked and that was the least sucky. No mention of climate change, it was all 'reign in big government', 'moral issues like freedom of religion', and similar twaddle.) Here's to screwing up the Republican pollsters as badly as the Dem ones are currently.

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