Apr 23, 2018 - Economy

Bernie Sanders is creating a Trump-like media machine

A split photo featuring Sanders and Trump at rallies

Photos: Getty Images

Bernie Sanders "has spent the last year and a half building something close to a small [TV] network out of his office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill," New York Magazine's Gabriel Debenedetti writes.

Flashback: Back when it seemed like Hillary Clinton would become the next president, there was speculation that then-candidate Donald Trump would start something similar — Trump TV.

[Am I concerned] that people might see me and Trump saying the same thing? Yes, I am.
— Sanders to NY Mag

Key quotes:

  • “My point of view is a very, very different one. My point of view is the corporate media, by definition, is owned by large multinational corporations: their bottom line is to make as much money as they can."
  • "They are part of the Establishment. There are issues, there are conflicts of interest in terms of fossil fuel advertising — how they have been very, very weak, in terms of climate change.”

NYMag reports...

  • "Sanders hosts an interview show (“The Bernie Sanders Show”) that he started streaming over Facebook Live on a semi-regular basis ... After [his staff] posted [a] simple clip and it earned hundreds of thousands of views with no promotion ..."
  • "Things escalated. Audio recordings of his conversations, repackaged as a podcast, have since occasionally reached near the top of iTunes’ list of popular programs."
  • "And, this year, he has begun experimenting with streaming town-hall-style programs on Facebook. Each of those live events has outdrawn CNN on the night it aired."
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