Bernie Sanders
crushed the debates by every measurable indicator except one: pundits’ opinion.

Jason Easley

October 14, 2015

If we had to decide
the winner of last night’s Democratic debate with only the opinions of
establishment media pundits, Hillary Clinton won by a landslide. But social
media and online polls overwhelmingly chose Bernie Sanders as the winner. So
which is true? Is Hillary the inevitable candidate the insider media has been
telling us she is since day one, or is the corporate media pushing a
pro-Hillary agenda on a pro-Bernie electorate?

The punditocracy is
in full agreement that Hillary Clinton was the winner:

–NPR wrote, “Hillary
Clinton, the candidate with the most to lose, may have come away having gained
the most.”

-In a New York Times
article with the highly-misleading headline, Who Won and Lost the Debate? The
Web Has Its Say, The Times wrote, “Hillary Rodham Clinton was the clear victor,
according to the opinion shapers in the political world (even conservative
commentators),” citing the opinions of overpaid pundits rather than actual
people on the internet.

–The Guardian added
to the mix, stating,”If you need to pick a winner from Tuesday night’s
Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton will do.”

-Vox.com — launched
by former Washington Post Wonkblog editor Ezra Klein (who launched Vox after
WaPo laughed his $10 million funding proposal out of the room) — has been
vociferous in their defense of Clinton. Today they ran the headline, Hillary
Clinton Silenced Her Critics, full of breathless praise for the former
Secretary of State. The article mentioned Bernie Sanders exactly once.

-Revealingly,
Poynter.org, which covers the news media, pointed out the media’s favoritism,
saying, “Press calls Hillary Clinton the winner, no contest.”

–The Boston Globe was
the most obvious in its beating of the Hillary Clinton war drums, as evidenced
by these three headlines from this morning:

For people who depend on news outlets like these for their information, they
may as well just give in and vote for Clinton, given her apparent
inevitability. But the internet tells a different story, in just about every
imaginable metric. As this graphic shows, editors of CNN, Slate, and TIME had a
starkly different opinion of who won compared to viewers.

1.
Facebook

According to US News
and World Report, Bernie Sanders was the most talked-about candidate on
Facebook, with Clinton in a distant second. A US News liveblog poll, conducted
on Facebook, asked viewers to select the candidate they think won the debate.
Sanders was the overwhelming favorite, with 82 percent of the vote.

2.
Twitter

Bernie Sanders was
mentioned 407,000 times on Twitter — more than any candidate combined. He also
picked up an astonishing 42,730 new followers during and after the debate,
compared to Hillary Clinton’s 25,475 new followers. In an analysis of tweets,
69 percent of those mentioning Bernie Sanders were positive. Only 56 percent of
tweets mentioning Hillary Clinton were positive. When comparing the frequency
of mentions, Bernie Sanders’ name or handle was mentioned 12,000 times per
minute, while Clinton’s name or handle was mentioned 8,300 times per minute.

 

3.
Fundraising

In Bernie Sanders’
closing statement, the Vermont senator mentioned how he recently set
fundraising records by raising $26 million in the last quarter with over
650,000 contributors giving an average donation of $30. Sanders even threw in a
last-minute fundraising ask, and it worked: the candidate gained a whopping
$1.4 million in new contributions after the debate.

4.
Focus Groups

When the mainstream
media polled focus groups to ask who won the debate, group participants
overwhelmingly chose Bernie Sanders. CNN selected a group of undecided voters
in Nevada; conservative messaging guru Frank Lutz picked a focus group of
Democratic voters in Florida; Fusion picked out a focus group of millennial
voters from Miami. And in each instance, focus groups thought Bernie Sanders
won the debate.  Luntz’ participants described Sanders as “strong,”
“smart,” and “for the people,” with nearly all participants picking him as
their favorite. Fusion’s focus group picked Sanders 8-3.

5.
Online Polling

Out of every mainstream
media organization conducting an online poll asking participants who won,
Bernie Sanders destroyed the competition. It wasn’t even close. Even Fox News
and Drudge participants said Sanders won by a huge margin.

One of the biggest
embarrassments for big media last night showed in online polls conducted by
CNN. Two separate polls each picked Sanders as the winner.

 

Curiously, this poll
was removed from CNN’s website, and is only shown here thanks to a Reddit
user’s screenshot. CNN removed the poll and replaced it with a pro-Clinton
headline:

 

Why would CNN so
obviously disregard its viewers’ opinions in favor of pushing a pro-Clinton
narrative? It might be partially because CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, is
one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest donors:

6.
Google Searches

Bernie Sanders was by
far the most-googled candidate of the night, surpassing all of his competitors
before the debate, during the debate, and afterward. No other candidate came
close.

 

Something is
seriously wrong inside corporate media newsrooms. Either editors and pundits
are so incompetent at their jobs that they wrongly assume Hillary Clinton was
the favorite in last night’s debate, or they’re purposefully shoving Hillary
Clinton down our throats and denying Bernie Sanders’ obvious popularity.

C. Robert Gibson is
editor-in-chief of US Uncut. His past work has been published in The Guardian,
Al Jazeera America, NPR, and the Washington Post. Follow him on Twitter:
@crgibs