Over the
last two presidential debates, both Democratic and Republican
candidates have asserted that the television news media is biased and
has done a poor job informing voters of the most pressing issues in
the election.
And while
their focus is on things like the type of questions asked by debate
moderators, they are overlooking much clearer signs of potential
conflicts of interest. Fundraising disclosures released this month
and in July reveal that lobbyists for media companies are raising big
money for establishment presidential candidates, particularly Hillary
Clinton.
The giant
media companies that shape much of the coverage of the presidential
campaign have a vested stake in the outcome. From campaign finance
laws that govern how money is spent on advertising to the regulators
who oversee consolidation rules, the media industry has a distinct
policy agenda, and with it, a political team to influence the result.
The top
fundraisers for Clinton include lobbyists who serve the parent
companies of CNN and MSNBC.
The National
Association of Broadcasters, a trade group that represents the
television station industry, has lobbyists who are fundraising for
both Clinton and Republican candidate Marco Rubio.
Presidential
campaigns are obligated by law to send the Federal Election
Commission a list of lobbyists who serve as “bundlers,”
collecting hundreds of individual checks on behalf of a candidate’s
campaign.
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“One of the direct answers on
why Bernie Sanders won't get elected, is because Wall Street would
not let him get elected. [...] In the current structure that we do
have, of this two party system, he is not electable because the
rich bankers and so forth, media apparatuses, will not allow him
to go any further. They will demonize him ... it will feel like
Hillary Clinton is the only possibility.”
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This is a characteristic example
of how internet not only breaks the mainstream media monopoly, but
also exposes the unequal treatment in which they proceed in favor
of a candidate they promote.
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