In the last few days we’ve seen Bernie Sanders’ frontrunner status for the Democrat nomination evaporate, with Joe Biden now taking the lead. There are a number of factors at work, and one of those is the approach being taken by the media.

Thursday evening the New York Times published a story that the Biden campaign will certainly take no issue with. Here are the Times’ tweets about Bernie Sanders and the Soviet Union back in the 1980s:

Exclusive: For Bernie Sanders, his 1988 trip to the Soviet Union was an effort to build diplomatic ties. For the Soviets, it was the start of a years-long propaganda effort to exploit his antiwar agenda, documents obtained by The New York Times show. https://t.co/I4UsqheKHQ — The New York Times (@nytimes) March 6, 2020

“I’m Joe Biden, and I approve this message”:

The Times obtained 89 pages of letters, telegrams and internal Soviet government documents that reveal how each side — Bernie Sanders, as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, and officials in Moscow — tried to cultivate a relationship to serve their own political ends pic.twitter.com/NLq2clgIHH — The New York Times (@nytimes) March 6, 2020

Bernie Sanders, in lobbying to make Yaroslavl the sister city of Burlington, Vermont, aimed to break down “barriers and stereotypes,” his presidential campaign said in a statement. He said at the time that he wanted the countries to “live together as friends.” pic.twitter.com/gkkfnghskS — The New York Times (@nytimes) March 6, 2020

For the Kremlin, these sister-city relationships were vehicles to sway American public opinion about the Soviet Union, the documents show https://t.co/g9LDjhbybC pic.twitter.com/GF1VguGERt — The New York Times (@nytimes) March 6, 2020

The documents are in a government archive in Yaroslavl, Russia, which would become Burlington's sister city. They are public, but archivists there said that no one had asked for them until we did last week. Here's how @antontroian reported this story. https://t.co/O0oD69FXX2 — The New York Times (@nytimes) March 6, 2020

All together, the documents reveal in new detail the extent of Bernie Sanders’s personal effort to establish ties between Burlington, Vermont, and a country many Americans then still considered an enemy. Here are 5 key excerpts from the archive. https://t.co/yyDwexfQxR — The New York Times (@nytimes) March 6, 2020

Wow, information that’s been available for decades is suddenly getting new media interest. Who could have seen that coming?

The NYT is ready to finish Bernie off. https://t.co/Qjob0mmawX — Alan Cornett (@alancornett) March 6, 2020

Did a memo go out? Because it feels like a memo has gone out.

I forget who exactly it was, but someone predicted several weeks ago that the media would obtain documents like this. Kudos to that person. https://t.co/YFdAcZDvBC — James Hasson (@JamesHasson20) March 6, 2020

amazing what happens when they get marching orders to destroy https://t.co/7PimzrZ5KS — TheFederalist Tweets (@federalistmemes) March 6, 2020

The word has gone out to end this thing and finish Bernie off once and for all. https://t.co/J8V0RtZjap — Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) March 6, 2020

Right on cue!

Bernie came close to winning the Dem nomination in 2016 but no one in the media thought to check up on his extensive contacts with the Soviet Union? Great job media. Way to ensure darkness to damage democracy. https://t.co/GIKdKbaQUo — Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) March 6, 2020

The press must be in “emergency” mode.