During an interview with Tavis Smiley on PBS Tuesday, Senator Bernie Sanders took a moment to rip corporate media for ignoring the greatest crisis of our time: climate change.
"What you've got today, Tavis, is about a half a dozen major media conglomerates that own and control the distribution of the information that the American people receive," Sanders said. "That is a massive concentration of control."
He went on to say that media's focus on profit trumps their obligation to actually report the news, citing their reporting on the election as one of the most obvious examples. Rather than reporting on the issues and candidates' stance on them, they chose to report on personalities, gaffes, and other side issues.
"The campaign was not presented as an issue impacting the American people, but more of a personality contest between the different candidates. That is a disaster for democracy," he continued.
I'd add here that we might liken the coverage of the campaign to a reality show.
He added an exclamation point onto that, saying, "If anybody thinks that advertising on television does not play an important role in terms of what gets covered, you are sorely mistaken."
"Climate change, according to the scientific community, is the great global crisis that we face. Yet there is unbelievably little coverage of climate change, and I believe that has a lot to do with a lot of the fossil fuel advertising and the special interests that dominate television. So those are some of the issues that concern me about media."
Us too, Bernie. Well, that and the fact that they're trying to pretend Donald Trump's election is somehow normal and should simply be covered like any other election in our history. Never mind that he's an autocrat who seems to want to set up some kind of dynastic rule inside the White House. Just keep pretending he's normal and maybe he'll somehow become normal.
