Bernie's In

And you of course had nothing to do with it with your constant lies and trolling with your untruthful pieces about Hillery and claiming Bernie is the second coming of Christ.

Because I do not do "believing."

I am convinced or am of the opinion that the Democrats would be committing political suicide if Sanders is the nominee. In fact, I am convinced or am of the opinion that the Democrats would be committing political suicide if Sanders is on the ticket in the second spot.

Shouldn't be anything puzzling about that. I just do not like to use the words "believe" or "belief" because of the ambiguity problems they often cause in other areas.

Not in the least.

If Edgar is unable to handle the heat...it was right for him to leave.

I never cry "uncle."

And because you tie yourself up in knots due to your idiosyncrasies concerning that particular word your actual message becomes confusing.

You are free to disregard anything I say, Izzy.

I do not like to use the words "believe" or "belief" because I see them as a problem in some discussions.

If it bothers you or anyone else that I do not use those words...

...tough.

It doesn't bother me, but it dilutes your message and makes you look a bit daft. Just saying.

I thought I was blocked. That lasted long. I've not yelled at anyone. What I have noticed is that when your stupidity is pointed out you try to deflect it by calling others angry, having high blood pressure, all manner of things. You are right about one thing though, I assumed to much. I assumed you weren't a complete moron and I was so wrong.

Chill. You don't like Bernie and I'm OK with that. I still agree with at least 90% of the things you post.

If he was GOP he'd in the second place with a bullet with that number.

We already have a bet on that Frank.

Only in your belief system, Frank.

NPR's non apology, Apology........ for not covering Sanders

NPR is the latest media outlet to respond after receiving scrutiny from their audience regarding coverage of presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

This comes just one day following a blog post from The New York Times‘ Public Editor responding to angry readers announcing she will perform a content analysis of Sanders’ coverage.

The segment triggering outrage was on Joe Biden’s potential run, with Mara Liasson closing her piece saying, “There are many Democrats who think it would be good for Hillary Clinton because she’d have a serious opponent… Right now, she’s basically running against herself and her problems.”

NPR Audience & Community Relations has apologized to listener Colleen Shaddox via email saying the “running against herself” reference “was intended to mean that her campaign is being buffeted in large part by issues related to things she’s done – including using a private email server.”

The comment in question came after Liasson was asked when Biden needs to make a decision, she responded by going on to question whether his third presidential run would be good for the Democrats saying “the party wants competition.”

Even though it’s unclear how NPR drew the conclusion that Lisson was actually talking about Clinton’s email scandal rather than the Democratic Party wishing Clinton had some competition, this goes to show the huge outlets like NPR and the Times rely on the public’s satisfaction.

While we await Sullivan’s findings, Sanders supporters can at least celebrate another small victory in the quest to end the Bernie Blackout.


http://berniepost.com/2015/09/npr-apologizes-failing-mention-sanders-democratic-presidential-contender/


One Readers response

NO, they did not apologize! I read the link, and a few other articles about the situation as well (including a very detailed discussion by someone at Vermont Public Radio) and ALL of them come across as "well, we're sorry you took it that way but that's not what we meant." This is the same logic as "well, I'm sorry that what I said offended you, but its not what I meant to do, so I am not in the wrong for saying whatever insensitive thing I just said" and counting it as an apology.

They cherry pick the comment from the end of the discussion and explain it away in context. Had I not listened to the whole piece, I may havce accepted the logic, but there are a half dozen moments or more where Mara Liasson performed bizarrely intense verbal gymnastics to avoid mentioning Bernie.

From the discussion about Biden, "The biggest question is what does he offer that's unique, that's different from Hillary Clinton?," then, "He certainly can't capture the antiestablishment fever that's been sweeping the Democratic Party base," but no mention of what is behind this fever, or who might be coaxing it along. There is no way that she did not intend to leave out Sanders, and a real apology would have said explicitly that the discussion was poorly handled and unfairly unbalanced.


I encourage everyone to contact NPR and express that we are not satisfied with this defense and want to see NPR conduct themselves differently.

http://help.npr.org/customer/portal/emails/new

The show being referenced by this article was
""All"" Things Considered.

which doesn't consider Bernie

Au contraire. I think Sanders is a decent, ethical man with the courage of his convictions. I will vote for him if he wins the nomination. I do have my doubts about how the kindly, worker-friendly pacifist would do as commander in chief and up against the slings and arrows of the opposition.

I just get a little weary of the sheer volume and shrill tone of the cheerleading. Carry on, I'm sure I'll get over it.

Hadn't thought of that. Good point.

A cautionary note about the excitement over the polls showing Bernie up, way up over
Clinton.

For example,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/128047251

As those who recognize my moniker know, I am a 100% Bernie Sanders supporter and volounteer.

But I want to warn about the poll numbers.

These polls assume that Joe Biden will run. The support attributed to him comes from vulnerable Hillary voters as well as from potential Sanders voters, but I suspect that they mostly come from Hillary's voters.

If Joe Biden does not announce, and I don't think he will, then new polls will be published that show Bernie down. It's kind of a psychological trick to include Biden, who has not announced his candidacy, in these polls.

When the reality becomes clear that Biden is not running (it's really too late if he is to participate in the first debate), then Bernie supporters are likely to be disappointed at the poll results. And the MSM is likely to gleefully report that Bernie is down.

Bernie will not be down. A great part of Biden's supporters will reluctantly go home and say they support Hillary.

But, here is the good news -- every person who claims to support Biden is demonstrating dissatisfaction with Hillary.

That means that every Biden supporter could be a potential Bernie supporter. The Biden supporters are breaking with the Hillary machine and the Hillary candidacy but not yet enough to say they support Bernie.

It's the Biden supporters we Bernie supporters need to reach with Bernie's populist, hones, authauntic message.

The point of this post: don't get discouraged if the polls show that Clinton's numbers go up and Bernie's go down when Biden disappears from the polls.

Just work harder because these polls show the potential for Bernie, and there is lots more out there that is not yet reflected in the polls.

I hope this post will not be misunderstood. I do not mean to suggest that Bernie is not winning hands down. But let's not get too euphoric because these polls are at this time not based on the reality about who is running. If you have questions about it, I will try to answer them.

The current power being flexed by We the People as we send messages directly to the news orgs that are refusing to cover Bernie is being celebrated among Bernie voters. It feels good to finally force them to respond. We spend money - and frankly, there's no stronger constituency for PBS than the progressives.

Likely why NPR has made this weak attempt at appeasing us. Problem is - this isn't the crowd to try to fool with empty rhetoric.

Very happy to see their facade chipping away.

The same type of demands are being made of other news orgs. Very recently, there is a push to contact commercial interests of the news orgs and threaten to boycott their products if they continue to sell on Bernie Blackout news time. Jeez, let me get behind that!

Bernie seems to have a huge following and can draw crowds and his words are beliefs that any true democrat or "progressive" should and probably do believe in, mostly. But he is just not "eye catching" so to speak and kind of bland for headlines. I mean it just can't compete with Trump's outrageous remarks or Hillary's continuing email or other scandals. I don't think it is a conspiracy, it just what is going to grab the headlines.

I hear you - the thing about it probably not being a conspiracy, but more likely just that Bernie isn't as exciting. But it should be pointed out though that there have been several stories lately that call into question the media bias against Bernie.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/bernie-sanders-popularity-continues-to-soar-despite-a-conspicuous-mainstream-media-bias-against-him/

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/06/23/bernie-sanders-confirms-media-bias-networks-tv-liberal.html

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/07/07/bernie-sanders-2016-media-bias/

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/william-boardman/63072/bernie-sanders-blindsided-by-new-york-times-blackout-sometimes-media-bias-is-invisible-until-you-l

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/245937-the-bernie-sanders-phenomenon

I will buy some of that, but I see things as more complicated. I think a fair number of Democrat voters have wobbles about each of the three candidates/possible candidate.

I will vote for Bernie in the primary, and I hope in the election. I worry about what Snood said as well, and worry about the possible near conflagration/shut down if he wins. That could be a good thing or terrible.

As most readers here know, I have long not liked Hillary Clinton, and I've said I'll vote for her if she is the candidate. I care very much about the supreme court future, and don't want to waste my vote. I have voted Green before, but not in the November election.

I quite like Biden and if I change in any way on the first two comments, it will be to vote for Biden in primary. There is at least one thing I disagree with him on strongly (prison situation) and may be others. At this point, I respect him and am interested. Past that, I think he might be a buffer re possible untoward reactions from many sides to a demo win, and possibly would pick up some independents and dissatisfied old line folks still in the GOP who don't like most of their choices.

That's today's assessment.

Izzy is truly a charming and interesting addition to A2K.She illuminates us poor sots with her views of our politics from a distant UK, but takes serious offense at any comment on any aspect of his country's affairs or history by any of us. Her criticisms are unfailingly balanced, thoughtful and specific as well.