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For Meet the Press, Bernie Sanders Is He Who Must Not Be Named
May 4, 2015
Meet the Press host Chuck Todd cant seem to get enough of the 2016 presidential race. Yet the one major candidate who announced he was running last weekVermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who declared on April 30 he was running for the Democratic nominationwas strikingly ignored on Meet the Presss May 2 broadcast.
Its not that the broadcast didnt have time to talk about the 2016 race. One of the shows guest was Martin OMalley, brought on to talk about the Baltimore protests as former mayor of Baltimore and former Maryland governor, but also as someone weighing a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination: Do you think you can still run on your record, as mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland, Todd asked him. Do you think this is a positive thing that voters will look at ?
Todd closed his interview by saying: Well see you, youll probably announce in Baltimore. But we didnt see anything about the candidate who actually announced that week in Washington, DC.
Afterwards, Todd had a brief discussion (labeled nerdscreen time) of an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll of voter priorities: For Democratic primary voters, the number one issue is job creation and economic growth followed by health care and climate change. As it happens, these are all issues that Sanders has put at the center of his campaignbut Todd made no reference to his candidacy.
John Boener and Chuch Todd (Meet the Press)
[Chuck Todd not talking to House Speaker John Boehner about Bernie Sanders on Meet the Press.]
Then Todd ended his interview with Republican House Speaker John Boehner by saying, Let me have a little bit of fun with you on presidential politics, then asking a series of six questions, none of which produced a substantive responsefrom You are a big fan of Jeb Bush, but you havent endorsed, why? (Well, Im not going to endorse anybody) to When I say Hillary Clinton, what do you say? Give me a word or phrase. First thing that comes to mind (Listen, I dont have a word for her. Former secretary of State) to Cruz, Paul, Rubio Do they have enough experience? (It will sort itself out over the next year).
Todd introduced the final panel discussion segment of the show by declaring that we are going to have another big week of presidential announcements coming up:
Carly Fiorina is expected to announce tomorrow. The former Hewlett-Packard CEO will make the announcement online, and then she takes questions via Twitters livestreaming app Periscope.
Baltimore native Ben Carson also announces tomorrow. Hell do so, though, in Detroit, not Baltimore.
Mike Huckabee will announce his presidential candidacy Tuesday in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas. Thats right, the same hometown as Bill Clinton.
So thats three mentions of candidates who are going to announcebut no reference to the candidate who really did announce in the previous week. (Sanders did not get his announcement previewed the week before on Meet the Press; in fact, Sanders hasnt been mentioned on the show since September 14, 2014, when he made his only guest appearance on the show.)
Todd continued:
And by the way, there is a fourth candidate thats been in the news this week. Chris Christies presidential ambitions are, well, shall we say floundering after two key allies were indicted and another plead guilty over the Bridgegate mess.
At this point, the show has mentioned 12 people who are running for presidentnone of them the one person whose candidacy had been declared in the previous week.
After this introduction, Todd declared, Lets talk a little quick 2016 with the panelleading a conversation that brought up Carson, Fiorina, Huckabee, Christie, Hillary Clinton, OMalleyand Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has repeatedly insisted she is not running for president. Wall Street Journal editorialist Kimberley Strassel asserted that Clinton is so worried about Elizabeth Warren getting into the race and [Clinton] is moving left, left, left, left. Meanwhile, the name of the candidate who is running to Clintons leftnot hypothetically, but in realitywas never mentioned.
Its worth noting that Meet the Press did not ignore Sanders because hes so much more obscure than the other candidates who were mentioned. Not that polls taken more than nine months before the first vote will be cast have much validity, but in four national opinion polls taken in the month before he announced his candidacy, Sanders averaged 6 percent of the voteas opposed to OMalley, who averaged 2 percent. In the Republican race, Todd was previewing the announcement of Fiorina, whos averaging 1 percent in polls, albeit in a more crowded field.
Campaign pundits often use fundraising ability as a measure of the seriousness of a candidate. Sanders raised a surprising $1.5 million in the 24 hours after his announcement, in increments that averaged under $50. By comparison, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul raised $800,000, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz $1 million and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio $1.25 million in their first official day of campaigning.
Todd introduced the last topic of the day by saying, Im obsessed with elections, as people knowand launching into a 400-word discussion of the race for British prime minister between Labours Ed Milliband and Conservative David Cameron.
Bernie Sanders on This Week
[Bernie Sanders: ignored on Meet the Press, but a featured guest on This Week.]
What were the other networks doing with their Sunday shows? CBSs Face the Nation devoted its broadcast to the Baltimore protests, featuring media-anointed poverty expert Rep. Paul Ryan (R.-Wisc.).
And the main guest on ABCs This Week? Sen. Bernie Sanders, discussing the announcement of his candidacy for the Democratic nomination.
ACTION: Please tell Meet the Press to cover Bernie Sanders, one of only two major declared candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination.
CONTACT:
Chuck Todd
Meet the Press
[email protected]
Twitter: @ChuckTodd
Please remember that respectful communication is most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your message in comments below.
GoneFishin
(5,217 posts)uncleverusername
(37 posts)He is a threat to their very existence, which is why they continue to prop up the same old Democratic and Republican corporatists.
TheNutcracker
(2,104 posts)see post and quick vid here:
http://time.com/3847143/democratic-primary-debates/
TheNutcracker
(2,104 posts)Bernie is that good.....he can handle the media!
TheNutcracker
(2,104 posts)unannounced at this time and Marco fill pages every day! Today...it's Ben Carson and Forlini on the front page!
Still, nothing about Bernie. THEY KNOW WHO TO FEAR...THEY KNOW WHAT PEOPLE WANT.
They want their country back, and it will only happen with President Sanders.
MoonchildCA
(1,301 posts)Fiarino, Carson, Huckabee are all joke candidates looking for media attention, book deals, and speaking engagements. None have this country's best interest at heart, no matter what anyone's opinion of what that is on either side of the political spectrum.
Bernie Sanders is a sitting U.S. senator who has officially announced his candacy.
Show some frickin' respect, Chuckie!