The bias of the media, but particularly MSNBC, against Bernie Sanders has seemingly reached its zenith. Host Chris Matthews compared Bernie’s win in the Nevada caucus to the Nazis entering France in June of 1940. You heard: Matthews compared an electoral win by a Jewish candidate, whose family members died in the Holocaust, to the Nazis. Stay classy there you political hack. In this piece, I hope to do three things. First, I want to look at Matthews’ remarks in a wider context, for he is hardly alone. Then I want to respond to calls that he should be fired for these remarks. Finally, I want to look at the great secret that this saga reveals.
Chuck Todd and ‘Digital Brownshirts’: Evidence Of A Larger Problem
Matthews is the current focus of the ire of the politically sane. But he is by no means the only pundit to make a Nazi reference about Bernie Sanders. Chuck Todd quoted an article wherein Sanders’ online supporters were called ‘Digital Brownshirts’, a reference to storm troopers in Nazi Germany. Todd went on to ask ‘what if you can’t win the presidency without an online mob’. That insidious remark requires some dissection.
What these petulant media types refer to as ‘an online mob’ is actually a passionate base of supporters. These people see ridiculous or uninformed takes that establishment types put on social media and they school them with the facts. These establishment types, not used to being people calling them on their lies, are lashing out because there is now a counternarrative. So-called Legacy Media (read establishment papers and TV) no longer have a monopoly on the flow of information. The advent of social media, for all its flaws, has broken this monopoly. Since Legacy Media cannot counter with facts, all they have is smear tactics and character assassination.
This explains the ‘Bernie bros’ narrative, where the media demonises Sanders supporters as nothing but angry white men. This is false as Sanders has a widely diverse coalition, but never let the facts get in the way of the narrative. But there is a contradiction at the heart of this strategy. The very voters they are demonising as ‘angry’ and ‘uncivil’ are the same voters they would demand fall in line and ‘unify’ around the media’s coronated nominee. Shaming voters for daring to support a non-corporate candidate then expecting them to fall in line behind a corporate candidate is madness. To demand unity after demonising voters is delusional. The Democratic establishment has clearly lost its mind.
The ‘Online Mobs’ Explained
To Chuck Todd and his fellow media midgets: why do you think Sanders and Trump have these passionate online followings? It is because, unlike you corporate shills in the media, these men have actual appeal. Now, who they appeal to and the basis of that appeal is totally different (no false equivalence here), but they are populist candidates who appeal effectively to their bases. These people are not ‘mobs’, they simply believe in their candidates and provide counterpunches to your deluge of corporate nonsense. Granted Sanders’ supporters are much better informed and their critiques of the media go beyond that great clunker Fake News, but the principle is the same.
HALT!: Chris Matthews and Cancel Culture
Matthews’ on-air antics have become increasingly unhinged following Sanders’ recent political success. The host infamously feared execution in Central Park under a Sanders Presidency in light of his wealth. Matthews looks increasingly like a child on whom it is dawning that some of their toys are about to be taken away. Matthews’ reaction is every bit as petulant as that child. He knows that part of Sanders’ agenda is a wealth tax, which is a small tax on wealth above a certain amount. The point of this is to partially pay for the populist reforms on which he ran. Taxing the good to benefit the poor?! The outrage!
Following the occupied France comparison, calls came thick and fast for Matthews’ termination from MSNBC. This has become standard in recent years: someone says something outrageous; the mob bays for blood and then claims moral superiority when the offender jumps or is pushed. This need not be the case regarding Chris Matthews. Instead, let him stay on the air and continue to expose the increasingly petulant oligarchy that America has become! Let him continue to make outrageous comparisons to gas chambers and other elements of the Nazi regime about a Jewish candidate! Let the corporate media structure commit suicide in public at the prospect of an actual populist candidate who wants to serve the people instead of the corporations!
In other words, my advice to anyone calling for Matthews to be fired is to play the long game. Between Matthews, the rest of the corporate media and the increasingly out of touch faux saviour Bloomberg, the establishment is doing your job for you! The establishment’s increasingly unhinged defence of their own privilege and wealth is a real-time political ad for revolution in America!
Conclusion: The Not-So-Hidden Secret
The petulant behaviour of the establishment, as well as the nature of their attacks on Sanders, shows that they are worried beyond measure. In addition, it shows that they have nothing of any substance to say in refutation. This is the great secret of this entire media tantrum: the peasants rejected your propaganda. They had the nerve to vote for the non-corporate candidate. You have no sway anymore. Hell, one woman even said she voted for Bernie Sanders precisely because MSNBC was so hostile to him. A useful real-time demonstration of propaganda rejection. The media has lost control of the narrative and they are lashing out like the thwarted children they are.
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