Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Democratic Presidential Candidate, speaks to thousands of supporters during a rally at the Boston Common on Saturday, February 29, 2020 in Boston, MA. (Photo: Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Mar 11, 2020
"In a dark time," poet Theodore Roethke wrote, "the eye begins to see."
No matter who wins the Democratic presidential nomination, many millions of people will refuse to unsee what has become all too clear. On the verge of spring 2020, we can see what we're up against:
*A crowing media establishment, eager to relegate the Bernie Sanders campaign to the political margins.
*A gloating Democratic Party establishment, glad to rally around Potemkin candidate Joe Biden and extol his carefully crafted facade.
*Overall, interlocking systems based on greed and corporate power instead of shared resources and genuine democracy.
On Tuesday night, there was no mistaking the smug joy of studio pundits and Democratic Party operatives on networks like AT&T-owned CNN and Comcast-owned MSNBC. Meanwhile, the New York Times rushed into print yet another all-out attack piece masquerading as a "news" article about Sanders.
Dominant media have routinely slanted coverage to make Sanders look bad, often bypassing context and skewing facts. It was just another day at the office last week when the Times front-paged a flagrant smear of Sanders as a supposed propaganda tool of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. A former U.S. ambassador to Moscow quickly denounced the story as a "distortion of history."
Such regular deceptions from a range of corporate media shouldn't surprise us, but they should never cease to outrage us. The same is true of the rampant corporate sleaziness in the upper reaches of the Democratic National Committee.
Corporate media and corporate Democrats want the Bernie 2020 campaign--and the grassroots energy behind it--to melt away. That's not going to happen.
Movements that have been propelling the Sanders campaign are here for the long haul--as determined to keep fighting for social justice as top corporate executives are determined to keep collecting huge paychecks. (And that's saying something.)
The chances of Bernie winning the nomination have sharply diminished, but it's still possible. And no matter what: movements for basic social change and democracy will vitally persist with long-term struggles to wrest power out of the hands of oligarchs and their functionaries.
Candidates who rushed to endorse Biden after his big victory in South Carolina--Michael Bloomberg, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O'Rourke, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker--each personify, in their own way, what's so corrosive about standard-issue Democratic Party leaders. Their backgrounds and personalities vary widely, but they share a political space of opportunism and ultra-coziness with corporate power. (Meanwhile, during the crucial aftermath of her withdrawal from the race after Super Tuesday, Elizabeth Warren shed new light on her political character when she decided not to endorse Sanders.)
The antidote to anti-democratic poisons has nothing to do with cynicism, passivity or defeatism. The solutions will come from realism, activism and ongoing insistence that a better world is possible--if we're willing to keep fighting for it.
Join Us: News for people demanding a better world
Common Dreams is powered by optimists who believe in the power of informed and engaged citizens to ignite and enact change to make the world a better place. We're hundreds of thousands strong, but every single supporter makes the difference. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Norman Solomon
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, was published in paperback with a new afterword about the Gaza war in autumn 2024.
"In a dark time," poet Theodore Roethke wrote, "the eye begins to see."
No matter who wins the Democratic presidential nomination, many millions of people will refuse to unsee what has become all too clear. On the verge of spring 2020, we can see what we're up against:
*A crowing media establishment, eager to relegate the Bernie Sanders campaign to the political margins.
*A gloating Democratic Party establishment, glad to rally around Potemkin candidate Joe Biden and extol his carefully crafted facade.
*Overall, interlocking systems based on greed and corporate power instead of shared resources and genuine democracy.
On Tuesday night, there was no mistaking the smug joy of studio pundits and Democratic Party operatives on networks like AT&T-owned CNN and Comcast-owned MSNBC. Meanwhile, the New York Times rushed into print yet another all-out attack piece masquerading as a "news" article about Sanders.
Dominant media have routinely slanted coverage to make Sanders look bad, often bypassing context and skewing facts. It was just another day at the office last week when the Times front-paged a flagrant smear of Sanders as a supposed propaganda tool of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. A former U.S. ambassador to Moscow quickly denounced the story as a "distortion of history."
Such regular deceptions from a range of corporate media shouldn't surprise us, but they should never cease to outrage us. The same is true of the rampant corporate sleaziness in the upper reaches of the Democratic National Committee.
Corporate media and corporate Democrats want the Bernie 2020 campaign--and the grassroots energy behind it--to melt away. That's not going to happen.
Movements that have been propelling the Sanders campaign are here for the long haul--as determined to keep fighting for social justice as top corporate executives are determined to keep collecting huge paychecks. (And that's saying something.)
The chances of Bernie winning the nomination have sharply diminished, but it's still possible. And no matter what: movements for basic social change and democracy will vitally persist with long-term struggles to wrest power out of the hands of oligarchs and their functionaries.
Candidates who rushed to endorse Biden after his big victory in South Carolina--Michael Bloomberg, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O'Rourke, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker--each personify, in their own way, what's so corrosive about standard-issue Democratic Party leaders. Their backgrounds and personalities vary widely, but they share a political space of opportunism and ultra-coziness with corporate power. (Meanwhile, during the crucial aftermath of her withdrawal from the race after Super Tuesday, Elizabeth Warren shed new light on her political character when she decided not to endorse Sanders.)
The antidote to anti-democratic poisons has nothing to do with cynicism, passivity or defeatism. The solutions will come from realism, activism and ongoing insistence that a better world is possible--if we're willing to keep fighting for it.
Norman Solomon
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, was published in paperback with a new afterword about the Gaza war in autumn 2024.
"In a dark time," poet Theodore Roethke wrote, "the eye begins to see."
No matter who wins the Democratic presidential nomination, many millions of people will refuse to unsee what has become all too clear. On the verge of spring 2020, we can see what we're up against:
*A crowing media establishment, eager to relegate the Bernie Sanders campaign to the political margins.
*A gloating Democratic Party establishment, glad to rally around Potemkin candidate Joe Biden and extol his carefully crafted facade.
*Overall, interlocking systems based on greed and corporate power instead of shared resources and genuine democracy.
On Tuesday night, there was no mistaking the smug joy of studio pundits and Democratic Party operatives on networks like AT&T-owned CNN and Comcast-owned MSNBC. Meanwhile, the New York Times rushed into print yet another all-out attack piece masquerading as a "news" article about Sanders.
Dominant media have routinely slanted coverage to make Sanders look bad, often bypassing context and skewing facts. It was just another day at the office last week when the Times front-paged a flagrant smear of Sanders as a supposed propaganda tool of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. A former U.S. ambassador to Moscow quickly denounced the story as a "distortion of history."
Such regular deceptions from a range of corporate media shouldn't surprise us, but they should never cease to outrage us. The same is true of the rampant corporate sleaziness in the upper reaches of the Democratic National Committee.
Corporate media and corporate Democrats want the Bernie 2020 campaign--and the grassroots energy behind it--to melt away. That's not going to happen.
Movements that have been propelling the Sanders campaign are here for the long haul--as determined to keep fighting for social justice as top corporate executives are determined to keep collecting huge paychecks. (And that's saying something.)
The chances of Bernie winning the nomination have sharply diminished, but it's still possible. And no matter what: movements for basic social change and democracy will vitally persist with long-term struggles to wrest power out of the hands of oligarchs and their functionaries.
Candidates who rushed to endorse Biden after his big victory in South Carolina--Michael Bloomberg, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O'Rourke, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker--each personify, in their own way, what's so corrosive about standard-issue Democratic Party leaders. Their backgrounds and personalities vary widely, but they share a political space of opportunism and ultra-coziness with corporate power. (Meanwhile, during the crucial aftermath of her withdrawal from the race after Super Tuesday, Elizabeth Warren shed new light on her political character when she decided not to endorse Sanders.)
The antidote to anti-democratic poisons has nothing to do with cynicism, passivity or defeatism. The solutions will come from realism, activism and ongoing insistence that a better world is possible--if we're willing to keep fighting for it.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.