First they ignore you, then they mock you, then they fight you, then you win.
Yesterday we covered Joy Reid having a junk science expert on her show to launch anti-semitic smears at Bernie Sanders. This was the culmination of a week in which the Warren campaign coordinated with CNN to leak a Sanders smear (an implausible one– Sanders told Warren a woman couldn’t win, and they stayed friends for over a year and it only came out right before the debate?), and white liberal feminists weaponized the language of #MeToo and sexual assault survivors to insist Warren must be telling the truth because she’s a woman.
(Meanwhile, Joe Biden says it and the mass media doesn’t say much of anything– certainly CNN and MSNBC don’t run multiple segments on it.)
Well, now, the Sanders camp has decided to take on Joe Biden’s long record of wanting to cut Social Security– something both unpopular and morally objectionable– and Biden is just trying to flat-out lie his way through it, including a lie that the Bernie Sanders camp “doctored video” of his speeches. And the media is obliging him.
How many times does @JoeBiden have to tell you he wants to cut Social Security for everyone to believe him? And how many video clips have to exist for people to worry that these would likely all be devastating Trump ads, if Biden is the nominee?
A 3-part thread…
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) January 10, 2020
Not a single one of these major media outlets conveys that Biden’s accusation is demonstrably false. This is stenography, not journalism, from the headline writers at the @nytimes, @CBSNews, & @NBCNews. pic.twitter.com/Ty0HGYAo6l
— Ben Spielberg (@BenSpielberg) January 19, 2020
there's a lot of weird shit going on with the people trying to pretend Joe Biden's entire career never happened but "a kinda annoying, too-online Sanders surrogate is the pied piper tricking legions of people into remembering when Joe Biden tried to cut SS" is the weirdest https://t.co/fkz5iSw4Qy
— Nathan Bernhardt (@jonbernhardt) January 19, 2020
Let’s look at the truth.
for reference, here are three of the other videos. Two of these speeches were on the Senate floor and are transcribed in the Congressional Record, so I can't wait for Biden to tell us they're "doctored." The other one is from Meet the Press. https://t.co/YNzuzrIyOE
— 29 U.S.C. § 157 (@OrganizingPower) January 18, 2020
https://theintercept.com/2020/01/13/biden-cuts-social-security/
https://theweek.com/articles/888689/joe-bidens-history-austerity
But wait, you say– I have fact checkers!
If you'd have told me a year ago one of the former Obama people who spends all day warning about Russian disinformation would himself start spreading disinformation as soon as Bernie Sanders looked like he might win….well, I would've told you that's entirely predictable. https://t.co/cBsL8LuSCA
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) January 19, 2020
The Bernie Sanders campaign said Joe Biden lauded a Paul Ryan proposal to cut Social Security. That’s False. https://t.co/3wkD81hWQX via @PolitiFact
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) January 18, 2020
Now, how did the “fact checkers” determine this claim was false? Let’s look at their methodology.
We sent Biden’s speech to Marc Goldwein, senior vice president for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
“The 2018 speech is very clearly Biden saying the opposite of what the Sanders campaign is claiming. He’s saying that Paul Ryan is going to cut taxes so that he can complain about the deficit and demand a need to cut Social Security.”
The “Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget”, eh? Well, we already know from experience that “budget” hawks love cutting “entitlements” while tax cuts and military spending expands evermore, but let’s get it in their own words.
Social Security spending and revenue must be brought in line to prevent insolvency. However, a thoughtful Social Security reform plan should go beyond simply assuring actuarial soundness by also improving retirement security and economic growth. In particular, Social Security reform should increase national income by promoting work, investment, and fiscal sustainability.
Everyone reading this knows what “reform” means, right? This isn’t even an old position of theirs (though it’s a long-held one); that paper was published in September.
This is CRFB, as per Lawson of Social Security Works. pic.twitter.com/C5kJgh8pZT
— US media doing Russia's job meddling in elections (@VoxRogamus) January 19, 2020
Marc Goldwein talking about "modifying" Social Security while working for a think-tank that's funded by a billionaire who has been on a life-long crusade to cut Social Security should tell you everything you need to know about what modifications he wants to do to it. pic.twitter.com/yFCJrzV8rJ
— Poe Derridameron (@ilovechrissia) January 19, 2020
What you have to understand fundamentally about CRFB is that it is not an honest operator. It exists to advocate for cuts to Social Security. @MarcGoldwein himself is paid $197,000 a year to advocate cuts. His boss, @MayaMacGuineas, is paid $376,000 per year to do so.
— Matt Bruenig (@MattBruenig) January 19, 2020
This completely ridiculous Politifact "fact check" was, based on the quoted sources in the piece, clearly seeded by this organization, with no mention in the article that the organization itself exists to advocate for Social Security cuts. https://t.co/MVpGp2kzof https://t.co/p3zUm6zdok
— Matt Bruenig (@MattBruenig) January 19, 2020
politifact also links to this article multiple times in the “fact check” which raises two questions, 1) why is the article considered an authoritative “factual” source and 2) why didn’t Politifact read it pic.twitter.com/lXIrSYsm6N
— HELLO I AM DREADLOCK MECHA SAMURAI (@FuzzyMarth) January 19, 2020
Here’s the video of Biden supporting Paul Ryan’s proposed Social Security cuts. Make sure everyone you know 65 and over sees this. pic.twitter.com/lvRP9bNkbs
— 29 U.S.C. § 157 (@OrganizingPower) December 28, 2019
and of course, the 2018 of Biden talking about Paul Ryan isn't "doctored." Politifact claims he was "being sarcastic." Their source is… the Biden campaign. Anyway, he literally says SS needs "adjustments," which can't conceivably mean anything but "cuts" https://t.co/ekTovdw7b4
— 29 U.S.C. § 157 (@OrganizingPower) January 19, 2020
That’s right: The “fact checkers” at Politifact took a claim from the Sanders campaign about Joe Biden wanting to cut Social Security, and instead of looking at the video evidence of Joe Biden wanting to cut Social Security, asked a spokesperson from an agency that wants to cut Social Security if Sanders’ camp was lying. And Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post “fact checker” who has repeatedly “checked” Bernie Sanders statements as false for specious reasons, boosted it. (It’s no coincidence, of course, that Glenn Kessler is literally an heir to the Royal Dutch Shell oil company.)
still my all time favorite disclosure pic.twitter.com/gPjp49G710
— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) January 19, 2020
This "fact check" of Bernie Sanders' newsletter on Biden and Social Security is just flat out wrong in multiple ways, and I'll explain how https://t.co/PxV81zutNy
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) January 9, 2020
Fortunately, this is line of attack is already getting some pushback in certain parts of the media.
Enough video evidence shows how Biden’s being particularly Trumpy abt his willingness to cut SS/Medicare. Also worth noting: In the oral hist, Obama aides openly discuss the WH putting entitlements on the table during the 2011 budget wars.
Biden led those talks for two months. pic.twitter.com/8iRK1NQn6A
— brian abrams (@BrianAbrams) January 19, 2020
Obama wanted to cut Social Security and Biden was his point man. It was common knowledge at the time. Same dynamic with Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Clinton was on the verge of a deal with Gingrich when the Lewinsky scandal happened. https://t.co/FiXCZKMFRM
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) January 19, 2020
WOW — MSNBC just reported that @JoeBiden is now refusing to answer reporters’ questions about all the times he has openly bragged about trying to cut Social Security. Watch the clip:#BidenSocialSecurityCuts pic.twitter.com/0LKokaGHDG
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) January 19, 2020
The best part of this tweet is people replying with articles and screenshots from Josh Marshall's own website detailing how Biden wanted to cut Social Security. https://t.co/Zhi4waYICq
— Yglesias J. Reilly (@RuckCohlchez) January 19, 2020
Let’s also flashback to another Biden moment that the media inexplicably dismissed– a very revealing moment of how Biden will handle criticism and attacks on the campaign trail (and you’d have to be kidding yourself to think that if Democrats agree not to make those criticisms, Trump won’t):
Can everyone remember a whole month ago to when Joe Biden called a voter fat & sedentary, before challenging him to push ups and an IQ test? This can’t be the nominee
— jack allison (@jackallisonLOL) January 19, 2020
There was going to be a second part to this article about how a Bloomberg reporter published a bogus transcript of a Sanders interview that completely changed the words he said and twisted their meaning, but the reporter already deleted it after being called out repeatedly. Here’s a brief addendum with summary of the situation instead.
Falsified info by Bloomberg reporter–just another DAILY example of anti-Bernie bias in the mainstream media.
This type of shit is done purposefully because the damage will be done long before any corrections are made–if any at all–and the misled fallout will last a while. pic.twitter.com/3aMAx1h3rr
— #BernieBeatsTrump ⚖️🏥🎓🛠🌎🕊⌛️#TrumpFearsBernie (@FamishedCreator) January 19, 2020
Your 'transcript' is not a transcript either
But then your entire purpose is to create political drama, so you keep trying pic.twitter.com/SculY0JKqI
— Tommy Kombuchar (@ThomasIsOnline) January 19, 2020
Here’s the video. Watch the video and compare it to @EmmaKinery’s “transcript,” and tell me this isn’t a Bloomberg reporter spreading fake news. pic.twitter.com/bPZSjh69sU
— 29 U.S.C. § 157 (@OrganizingPower) January 19, 2020
Compare @EmmaKinery’s now-deleted fake “transcript” (left) to Sanders’ actual remarks (right). The fake transcript she created gives the reader the impression that Bernie said being gay is a “problem.” pic.twitter.com/BuFApzGpvv
— 29 U.S.C. § 157 (@OrganizingPower) January 19, 2020
It’s a good time to remember that the Sanders-bashers don’t actually care about racism and sexism except as a cudgel to attack him. (That topic has been covered several times here recently already.)
In general, the fact Biden's long history of sexism, racism, attacks on social services, and general lying go mostly unremarked as establishment liberals diligently read all kinds of prejudice and deception into anodyne statements from Sanders shows it's about power, not justice https://t.co/0g8q7llOlX
— ☭ politics understander ☭🕙 (@ACorollaries) January 19, 2020
Keep organizing and combating disinformation; the mass media can’t control the narrative in the way they used to in the past. On that note, here’s a flashback to 16 years ago, in the pre-social media era, when the media was still able to do just that:
On January 19, 2004, Democratic Presidential ‘frontrunner’ Howard Dean, who placed a disappointing third in the Democratic Iowa precinct caucuses, launched into an animated pep talk with his supporters, later dubbed the ‘Dean Scream’ pic.twitter.com/5losg04i3I
— RetroNewsNow (@RetroNewsNow) January 19, 2020