ANOTHER CORPORATE MEDIA BLACKOUT: BERNIE SANDERS’ POPULAR VOTE

Bernie Sanders triumphed in both Idaho and Utah with about 79 percent of the vote. That is among the highest percentage of votes for any of the pre-candidates for both Democratic and Republican Parties in state elections for the 2016 presidential nominations. The fact that Hillary Clinton received only 21 percent of the vote in both states is of overwhelming significance. And yet the media has practically ignored the significance of these results. Instead it has focused on the Republican Party circus, thus reinforcing the notion that Hillary’s nomination is inevitable and consequently the Democratic Party primaries are not news items.

The media also ignores the fact that Hillary’s victories and her votes in general are due in large part to the Afro-American vote. And yet Afro-Americans in general can’t be in favor of a person who supported mass incarceration and the decentralization (read downsizing) of the nation’s welfare system in the 1990s over a candidate who was arrested for protesting against Jim Crow in the 1960s. Obviously the mass of Afro-Americans are not voting in the primaries and those that do are being heavily influenced by the Afro-American establishment (which surprisingly and unfortunately includes Jessie Jackson).

The corporate media is following the same strategy it did in opposition to Jeremy Corbyn’s bid to head the Labor Party in Great Britain. The first step is to ignore the candidacy on grounds that there is no where he can win. In the face of a groundswell of support, the media goes into second gear in carrying out a campaign to discredit the candidate. In the case of Sanders, the second gear is being foreshadowed by Fox News and the ilk of Bill O’Reilly who conjures up fears of Castro Communism.

Nor has the media presented information regarding the overall popular vote and instead limits itself to information on the number of delegates of both candidates (thus exaggerating Clinton's standing). Isn’t the net popular vote of both candidates significant? Obviously the popular vote is what democracy is all about. And yet the information about the total vote of the candidates in those states where elections have been held is just not out there.