Bill De Blasio, on Media Coverage of Bernie Sanders: ‘There Are Plenty of Journalists Who Are Class Traitors’

Ben Smith’s latest media column for the New York Times is focused on the merits of Bernie Sanders’ criticisms of the mainstream press.

The clearest example of such Smith lands on is the sense of “on-air relief at MSNBC” at Joe Biden winning big on Super Tuesday. An unnamed senior producer told Smith, with respect to Sanders, “What a whole lot of people here see is the same thing as Trump.”

Smith also takes particular note of the growth of The Hill’s online show Rising, co-hosted by Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti.

Smith writes, “It’s a kind of anti-establishment ‘Crossfire’ aimed at ‘hating each other as American people less — and hating the elites more,’ as Ms. Ball put it.”

Another effort at offering an “outsider’s network” version of MSNBC is coming from Vice. Smith reports they’re developing a weekly show with Anand Giridharadas, a current MSNBC political analyst who recently got media attention calling out the Democratic establishment and Chris Matthews over panicked reactions to Sanders’ rise.

Smith concludes his column noting that media coverage of Sanders has captured his strengths more than four years ago, and Bill de Blasio offered a rather blunt assessment of why:

And in 2020, far more than in 2016, the media has also captured his strengths: his consistency, his commitment to the poor, his deep popularity with young people. A top supporter of Mr. Sanders, New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, offered an explanation for that in an interview.

Capitalist ownership or not, the mayor said, “There are plenty of journalists who are class traitors.”

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