News Release

Media Bias: Debates and Election

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ABC is holding a debate in coordination with the Democratic National Committee tonight.

SAM HUSSEINI, sam at accuracy.org, @accuracy2020
Husseini is senior analyst with accuracy.org, which has just launched accuracy2020. The project is organizing “voters, students, and local activists who care about fair debates and clean elections to gather in front of ABC headquarters in downtown Washington at noon on Saturday, Feb. 8, to challenge ABC and other major media corporations on their handling of the Democratic presidential candidates’ debates.”

Said Husseini: “We saw corporate media bias during ABC’s Sept. 12 debate and CNN’s Jan. 14 debate. Most of all, we’ve seen a skewing and marginalization of real issues, which this election should be all about. The public deserves far better.” See Facebook page for event and new Twitter feed.

JULIE HOLLAR, jhollar at fair.org, @FAIRmediawatch
Hollar is senior analyst for FAIR’s Election Focus 2020 project. In September, she wrote the piece “ABC Debate Lowlights” about the last time ABC ran a debate.

Her recent pieces include “Corporate Media Are the Real ‘Sanders Attack Machine’” and “The Big Loser in the Iowa Debate? CNN’s Reputation.”

JIM NAURECKAS, jnaureckas at fair.org, @JNaureckas
Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org and just wrote the piece “How Corporate Media Make Pete Look Like He’s Winning.”

He writes that New York Times “polling maven Nate Cohn has a note nearby that states that SDEs [state delegate equivalents] are ‘the metric we use to call a winner.’ But — why? SDEs are a meaningless intermediate step between the number of votes cast and the pledged delegates awarded — the latter being what actually matters in terms of winning the Democratic nomination for president, which is what this is all about. Why not use those as the metric you use to call a winner — the way, you know, the Democratic Party does?”

Also see:

By Jeff Cohen: “7 Pointed Questions for Corporate Media About Their Anti-Progressive Biases.”

By Norman Solomon: “It’s Corporate Media, ‘Moderate’ Democrats, and the Oligarchy vs. Bernie Sanders and a Movement.”