One of the biggest audience responses during the October 12 Democratic presidential debate came when Bernie Sanders agreed with Hillary Clinton that focus on her email server was a distraction. But as Lee Fang at the Intercept (10/14/15) pointed out, TV coverage only stressed part of that story, the part about the political impact of Sanders expressing solidarity with Clinton.

MSNBC‘s report, for example, cut from Sanders comment, “The secretary is right, and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails,” to his words, “Enough of the emails. Let’s talk about the real issues facing America.”

What came in between, which MSNBC and others cut out, was Sanders saying to CNN‘s Anderson Cooper:

Anderson…let me say something about the media, as well. I go around the country, talk to a whole lot of people. Middle class in this country is collapsing. We have 27 million people living in poverty. We have massive wealth and income inequality. Our trade policies have cost us millions of decent jobs. The American people want to know whether we’re going to have a democracy or an oligarchy as a result of Citizens United. Enough of the emails….

Sanders, in other words, wasn’t just criticizing Republicans, he was also criticizing media that prioritize sensationalism over basic economic realities.

Should we be surprised that media want to skip over that bit? We can’t improve on the words of investigative journalist and media critic George Seldes: “The most sacred cow of the press is the press itself.”



Watch video of the complete exchange:

Sanders slams media from The Intercept on Vimeo.

Janine Jackson is the program director of FAIR and the host of CounterSpin.