Media Colluded to Tear Down Clinton/Pump Trump and Sanders

The report shows that during the year 2015, major news outlets covered Donald Trump in a way that was unusual given his low initial polling numbers—a high volume of media coverage preceded Trump’s rise in the polls. Trump’s coverage was positive in tone—he received far more “good press” than “bad press.” The volume and tone of the coverage helped propel Trump to the top of Republican polls.

As his poll numbers ticked upward, [Sanders] was portrayed as a “gaining ground” candidate, a favorable storyline buttressed by reports of increasingly large crowds and enthusiastic followers. “The overflow crowds Sanders has been drawing in Iowa and New Hampshire,” said USA Today, “are signs that there is ‘a real hunger’ for a substantive discussion about Americans’ economic anxieties . . . .” The “real hunger” extended also to journalists, who are drawn to a candidate who begins to make headway against an odds-on favorite.

The odds-on favorite got virtually no breaks from either liberal or conservative media...

...Whereas media coverage helped build up Trump, it helped tear down Clinton ...

Month after month ... her coverage was more negative than positive. There was only one month in the whole of 2015 where the tone of her coverage was not in the red and, even then, it barely touched positive territory. During the first half of the year, excluding neutral references, it averaged three to one negative statements over positive statements. Her coverage in the second half of the year was more favorable, but still damning. The ratio for that period was more than three to two negative over positive.

http://shorensteincenter.org/pre-primary-news-coverage-2016-trump-clinton-sanders/

She's one tough cookie ....

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/dc-democratic-primary-results

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bloomberg-poll-clinton-trump

I do believe certain media did "pump Trump". But, as you'll recall, Sanders events were not receiving much mainstream coverage at all until he started gaining substantially in the polls. I agree that much of the coverage of Hillary Clinton was negative; it's been that way since Bill's presidency. It escalated with the fake Benghazi scandal, which segued into the fake email scandal, which allowed Trump to resurrect the death of Vince Foster and promote the idea that Mrs. Clinton somehow enabled her husband's sexual misbehavior and intimidated "victims".

There's no need to paint Bernie Sanders as some kind of spoiler; he isn't.