Bernie – RI Future

March 7, 2016

ProJo editor admits paper of record did Bernie wrong

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

Providence Journal Executive Editor David Butler said Rhode Island’s paper of record could have done a better job covering Bernie Sanders’ primary wins onSaturday.

“I would agree it deserved more and the paper was GOP heavy,” Butler said, responding to a Nicholas Delmenico post alleging the ProJo isn’t offering fair and ample coverage to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

“Though you must admit the GOP race has been much newsier – for better or for worse,” he added.

“Please note that Bernie Sanders’ caucus wins were mentioned in the second paragraph of the A1 Sunday AP roundup on the primaries,” Butler wrote in an email to RI Future. “Note that the lead story in the Monday paper was on the Clinton-Sanders debate.”

Butler, whose full email you can read here, said, “There is no blackout of the Dems.” Delmenico’s post does not allege a blackout of Democrats, but rather of Bernie Sanders.

Sanders supporters have grown more vocal recently about what they see as unfair treatment of their candidate from the so-called “mainstream media” a colloquialism for the large, influential and in most cases for-profit corporations that Americans rely on to become educated about their government.

Delmenico insinuated the Providence Journal has not adequately covered Bernie Sanders because it is owned by a corporation with ties to Wall Street.

Others have said too many media organizations include superdelegate campaign promises when comparing Hillary Clinton and Sanders delegate totals. Superdelegates are party insiders that get a vote in who the presidential nominee is. They are known to change their mind. In fact, they are known to change their mind against Hillary Clinton, who eight years ago held a similar superdelegate advantage over Barack Obama before many switched to support the eventual nominee.

Clinton has won 671 delegates to Sanders’ 476. But, according to the New York Times, Clinton also has 458 superdelegates who have said they will vote for her compared to 22 for Sanders.

March 7, 2016March 7, 2016

The Bernie blackout is real, and it’s happening at the Providence Journal

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

The media blackout on U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is real, and it’s happening with our home state newspaper. Please read further for the gruesome details.

On Saturday, March 5, 2016, Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in Democratic caucuses by voting margins of 35% in Kansas and 14% in Nebraska. He also lost by a margin of 48% in the Louisiana primary.

In the Providence Sunday Journal, there is not ONE headline mentioning any of these facts nor one article dedicated to the Democratic presidential race. A review of today’s “A” section reveals the following articles related to the 2016 presidential race:

Page A1 (above the fold): “Cruz gains ground – Beats Trump handily in Kansas, Maine”

Page A1 (below the fold): “Trump taps into fears of changing America – A champion to the disgruntled white working class, a ‘monster’ to the GOP elite”

Page A7: “Trump primary win roils Mass. GOP – But Democrats have left their party, too, to back the maverick Republican”

Page A8: “Clinton backers pursue ‘gender gap'” – an article that discusses the gender gap in Trump’s supporters and how a Trump/Clinton general election could feature the largest gender gap ever in a presidential election, again pushing the narrative that Trump and Clinton will be the nominees.

Page A9: “GOP points to Obama tenure as cause of party’s schism” with the featured quote “There would be no Donald Trump without Barack Obama.” – Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Page A9: “5 states will shape 2016 race on weekend” – it mentions that “both parties had contests in Kansas and Louisiana … and Democrats in Nebraska also vote” but made no mention of the results. In fact, the article also mentions that these states “possess the power to make Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump closer to unstoppable.” The bias here is frightening, and this is from an AP article. The article also gives the “delegate count” for the Democrats without noting that the count includes as of yet unofficial counts of superdelegates, another misleading tactic.

And in the “Commentary” section…

Page A13: “Clinton backers split on Trump strategy” – you guessed it, an op-ed on how Hillary should take on Trump in the general election.

Page A13: “Republican ‘takers’ take down the establishment” – a GOP-focused op-ed

Page A14: “Romney’s warning” – an editorial from the Providence Journal Editorial Board, again focused on the GOP and coming out against Trump.

Page A14: “Letters to the Editor” – even the ones included here are anti-abortion, about Ben Carson, and about John Kasich.

To top it all off, on the Providence Journal’s Facebook page, they posted, on March 6 at 9:10 am, an AP article whose headline insinuates that both Cruz and Sanders’ wins yesterday were meaningless.

What is going on here?

I will be calling the Providence Journal to complain about the lack of coverage of the Democratic nomination process. I will ask two questions:

Why were the Democratic results not given any consideration?
Will the Journal commit to giving equal consideration to the Democratic and Republican races, and give equal consideration to the only two Democrats in the race?

I will also email David J. Butler, the Executive Editor & Senior VP of News for The Providence Journal directly as his email is listed on page A2: dbutler@providencejournal.com.

As I do not expect to get satisfactory answers to my questions, I am left to do what you must always do when something doesn’t pass the sniff test: follow the money.

The Providence Journal is “a subsidiary of GateHouse Media, Inc.” according to page A2. According to Wikipedia, GateHouse Media (which went through a planned bankruptcy and is now part of the holding company New Media Investment Group Inc) is owned by Fortress Investment Group. Also according to Wikipedia, Fortress “was founded as a private equity firm in 1998 by Wesley R. Edens, a former partner at BlackRock Financial Management, Inc.; Rob Kauffman (businessman), a managing director of UBS; and Randal A. Nardone, also a managing director of UBS. Fortress quickly expanded into hedge funds, real estate-related investments and debt securities, run by Michael Novogratz and Pete Briger, both former partners at Goldman Sachs.”

Big surprise.

Please, contact the Journal and put pressure on them to do right by the people it serves and give equal consideration to the presidential races and publish articles and op-eds from all points of view, not just those that match their owners’ views.

Please call the Journal. Please email. Please share this post. Please do anything so that the corrupt influence of “big media” does not infiltrate the biggest paper in our little state.

(Editor’s note: This was originally a Facebook post)

February 29, 2016

Bernie’s effort to GOTV is proven to work

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

If you were in New Bedford during GOTV week, you wouldn’t even think that Bernie got crushed in South Carolina. If you saw the number of canvassers, or the Bernie fanatics waving signs on street corners and telling passersby to vote on Tuesday, you’d think that the campaign is thriving and full of positive energy.

That’s because it is.

In New Bedford, as I write this, more than 30 people are out on the streets with clipboards and Bernie stickers and pamphlets, knocking on doors across the entire city. Fifteen of them are from Rhode Island. Other RI volunteers are up in Worcester, Framingham, and Boston talking to voters. Right now, we’re sweeping the state, asking every potential supporter to get out and vote for Bernie on Super Tuesday.

This is important. Primaries don’t draw near as many voters as the general election, and a couple hundred votes can make or break a campaign. Boots on the ground and voices through the phone statistically lead to high voter turnout, as it did in New Hampshire. And an important fact of the South Carolina drubbing is that voter turnout was very low. Like Bernie has said, when voter turnout is high, Democrats win because voters feel empowered and energized, but when voter turnout is low and people feel demoralized, Republicans win. In this particular case, Hillary won, but if you consider the ideological gap between Hillary and Bernie, she might as well have been that uninspiring conservative candidate.

When I think about why I decided to volunteer for Bernie, it is because he has inspired me. As someone who all but gave up on politics, Bernie has ushered me out of the darkness of political apathy into a psychological state where I feel compelled to work as hard as I can with other volunteers to get him in the White House. And when we work that hard together for something that we all believe in, for a positive change that we want to see in the world, that inspiration comes not just from Bernie, but from all of us. It’s synergistic, and our energy rubs off on one another. I’ve seen one-time volunteers suddenly decide to come back again and again to help our campaign win. The same thing happened to me after my first canvassing shift in New Hampshire.

The energy, the excitement, is addicting. And these campaign staffers hardly sleep—they are working every moment of their waking lives to get Bernie elected. No days off, 5 hours of sleep if they are lucky, but you can tell that they believe so firmly in their work that they wouldn’t be doing anything else. That is truly inspiring. When we work together to Get Out The Vote, people vote! They did in New Hampshire, they will in Massachusetts, and as long as we keep up the pressure and keep gaining momentum, we will win.

May 7, 2015May 8, 2015

Bernie for president starts in RI Saturday

Deprecated: Function get_magic_quotes_gpc() is deprecated in /hermes/bosnacweb08/bosnacweb08bf/b1577/ipg.rifuturecom/RIFutureNew/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 4387

Bernie Sanders, a progressive Senator from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats and leans toward socialism, is emerging as the left’s best choice to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president. He’s calling for “a political revolution in this country” and in his first 24 hours as a candidate he raised $1.5 million.

The Rhode Island chapter of the Bernie Sanders campaign kicks off on Saturday 1pm at the Greenville Library in Smithfield.

“People in this country are tired of corporate cronyism,” said Lauren Niedel, lead organizer for the RI Progressive Democrats who is helping with the campaign. “We see it here in the likes of Skeffington and the Providence stadium and nationally with Monsanto, Wall Street, energy companies and huge multi-nationals. Bernie is the only one who is willing to take them on. As Bernie says “We need a Political Revolution” and RI needs to be a part of it. Bernie is the voice for the 99% and his campaign is gathering steam with over 100 nationwide meetups scheduled in just one week.”