Political activists of the left are no strangers to the slick-but-vapid, dumbed-down, propagandistic nature of most of today's media, worsened over the past 40 years by the predatory concentration of ownership and the rise of so-called infotainment as well as that creature with the upside-down name of "reality tv." So much of what passes for news is pure disinformation, not mistaken-ridden misinformation but intentionally fabricated "facts" as simple as assigning the wrong party label to someone on a chyron to more sophisticated efforts that trash, say, renewable energy sources.

But outright omission is the biggest disinformer. What the populace doesn't know can't hurt the powers-that-be. What the populace doesn't know it can't organize around, can't act on, can't change.

Sanders is no newbie when it comes to making note of this situation. Back in late October, half a year before he made the decision to contest the Democratic nomination, he appeared with Bill Moyers:



BILL MOYERS: Well, that’s interesting. Because, you know, I’ve seen you quite recently on television. What’s the story that the corporate press is not letting you tell? SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Oh, my God. You see, this is the issue. I mean, I’ve been on a million of these shows. They say, here’s the story of the day. What do you think about the Secret Service? What do you think about this? What do you think about Ebola? All of those issues are important. But the issues that impact ordinary people, is they’re asking why, despite all of the increase[d] productivity, people are working longer hours for lower wages. Have we had that discussion, Bill? Have you ever heard anybody talking about it? They’re asking how come we’ve had this unfettered free-trade policies that have resulted in the loss of millions of good-paying jobs and you got both parties still saying, ‘Well, that’s pretty good.’ And this issue of income and wealth inequality, wow. One percent owning 37 percent of the wealth in America. Bottom 60 percent owning 1.7 percent. One family, the Walton family of Wal-Mart, owning more wealth than the bottom 40 percent. Do you think we should be talking about that issue? You can’t get the discussion going on TV. BILL MOYERS: Why? SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Because it’s not in the interest of the corporations who own the networks to actually be educating the American people so that [they] are debating the real issues. It’s much better to deflect attention away from those issues and get into the story of the day.

Quite so.

Check out, for instance, Sanders' 12-point economic Agenda for America. That was announced December 1 last year and it's what spurred me off my duff to write an endorsement of the presidential campaign he wouldn't officially start for nearly another six months.

It got a trickle of attention. At the time, his being just a senator from tiny Vermont, perhaps the big media's ignoring that agenda made sense. But now? With rally after rally generating bigger turnouts than the original venues could hold in Portland and Denver and Dallas and Dubuque, you would think that ideas like those in the agenda would get thorough examination.

Every item ought to get the full treatment. Not an uncritical look by any means, but a fair and thorough one.

Take Item No. 1:



1. We need a major investment to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure: roads, bridges, water systems, waste water plants, airports, railroads and schools. It has been estimated that the cost of the Bush-Cheney Iraq War, a war we should never have waged, will total $3 trillion by the time the last veteran receives needed care. A $1 trillion investment in infrastructure could create 13 million decent paying jobs and make this country more efficient and productive. We need to invest in infrastructure, not more war.

There are all kinds of ways to look at this. Is a trillion enough? Or should it be a trillion annually for 5 to 10 years? Would it really create that many jobs? Would they be good jobs? Why isn't this or something like it already part of the Democratic Party platform? How can enough Republicans be brought onboard to make it a reality in Congress? Should one of the projects from this infrastructure investment be something really big, a "moonshot" such as providing cheap broadband services nationwide the way the Rural Electrification Act brought electricity to the 90 percent of America's farms that had none in 1935.

Those questions just scratch the surface, but you get the idea. Every one of the ideas in Sanders' agenda deserves the same kind of questioning, both from a content and tactical approach. Like No. 2: "The United States must lead the world in reversing climate change and make certain that this planet is habitable for our children and grandchildren. [...]"

It's an immense challenge to get Big Media to do what is supposed to be their friggin' job. Believe me, I know, having spent more than 15 of my 30+ years in journalism working for Big Media and trying to assign to reporters or squeeze past my editors stories of my own about America's need for change into the interstices of daily coverage.

Although they are far from a complete solution, let me offer a couple of recommendations.

Although local newspapers are pale shadows of their former selves, and slipping further and further into irrelevance and financial oblivion, they are often hungry for stories that activists can pitch. What kind of community gains could be made with the kind of improved infrastructure Sanders is promoting? Ditto the other 11 items on his agenda.

Likewise, activists should pitch appropriate stories dealing with such matters to local radio and television stations.

In addition, some of the thousands of people showing up for Sanders's rallies should be harnessed to show up at the offices of corporate media, or on the streets in front of those offices, and demand that they talk about the issues he's talking about. Picking a single day to do that in unison from coast to coast would be most effective, but other innovative approaches should be taken as well.

I know others here have ideas of their own on making this happen. Let's hear 'em!

If we take Bernie seriously when he says the nation needs a political revolution, we need to do the hard work of spreading the word. That's a lot harder than it was 40, 30, 20 years ago. And many activists have despaired of breaking through the media wall. But historically the last thing progressives have said about hard political work is "no can do."