MSNBC yet again broadcasts blatant lies, this time about Bernie Sanders’ opening speech, and refuses to correct them
MSNBC is
a dishonest political operation, not a news outlet. It systematically
and deliberately refuses to adopt a defining attribute of a news
outlet: a willingness to acknowledge factual errors, correct them,
and apologize. That they not only allow their lies to stand
uncorrected but reward their employees who do it most frequently –
especially when those lies are directed at adversaries of the
Democratic Party – proves that they are, first and foremost, a
political arm of the Democratic establishment.
The most
recent example is as glaring as it is malicious. On Saturday in
Brooklyn, Bernie Sanders delivered his first speech for his 2020
presidential campaign in front of thousands of people. MSNBC
broadcast the speech live, and anyone can watch the full 2-hour
event, or just Sanders’ full 35-minute speech, on YouTube.
As a
result, there’s no confusion possible about what was said. Everyone
can see it with their own eyes.
Before
Sanders spoke, he was introduced by a series of speakers including
three African-Americans: South Carolina State Rep. Terry Alexander
(who spoke of Sanders’ life-long commitment to equal justice and
opportunity), former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner (who heralded
Sanders’ long-time commitment to racial justice and his status as
“only one of two white elected officials” who supported Jesse
Jackson’s presidential campaign run in 1984), and racial justice
activist (and Intercept columnist) Shaun King (who described in
detail Sanders’ history as an anti-racist and civil rights activist
in the 1960s and his decades-long devotion to issues of racial
equality).
After
Sanders’ speech, MSNBC immediately asked its panel for its
reaction. The first person they turned to was Zerlina Maxwell, who
the host identified only as an “MSNBC analyst.” What the host
omitted, but which Maxwell herself acknowledged, was that she was a
paid official for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign against Sanders:
that, revealingly, is the first person MSNBC had opine on Sanders’
speech.
After
the host noted that Maxwell was making gestures of disapproval
throughout Sanders’ speech and asked her what the cause was,
Maxwell proceeded to state demonstrable lies about that speech. She
said: “To be very serious about it, I clocked it. He did not
mention race or gender until 23 minutes into the speech. And just for
point of comparison, I went back and looked at Elizabeth Warren’s
opening speech, for example. She mentions race and discrimination in
the first paragraph. So that’s a big difference.”
That is
a big difference. It’s also a total lie. Sanders mentioned race,
gender and discrimination multiple times at the beginning of his
speech and long before the 23-minute mark, as anyone who actually
watched it – which presumably includes all the MSNBC personalities
on that panel who sat silently as this lie was broadcast –
obviously knew was a lie. For good measure, Maxwell repeated the same
lie she told on MSNBC in a tweet that she posted:
Ok 23 minutes in Bernie finally mentions race and gender— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) March 2, 2019
All one
needs to do to prove this is an obvious lie is look at the video of
Sanders’ speech – which the MSNBC panel had just done as it
allowed Maxwell to deceive its audience this way.
Full
report:
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