Socialist celebrity backers of Bernie Sanders are kicking reality to the curb and complaining about a “media blackout” of Sanders.
In an interview with Variety, actor Mark Ruffalo insisted there has been a “virtual media blackout of him since the start of his campaign.”
“He has been on a serious media diet for whatever reason,” Ruffalo says. “Part of it is the infatuation and fetish-ization of Trump in the media class.” Where Sanders has been helped is via social media, particularly with his popularity among young voters. “We all kind of joke that we are the media now. We call it Main Street media.”
Ruffalo says that he has brought up the issue of Sanders’ coverage to the real-life [Boston Globe] journalists portrayed in Spotlight and asked, “What is going on?”
“They just basically say that Trump has sucked all the air out of the room,” Ruffalo says. “But no matter what it is, it has to stop.”
Ruffalo says that Sanders has been able to recapture disaffected Democrats by highlighting issues like trade and “business as usual” money in politics.
“What people don’t understand is you have had a mass sort of revolt of Democrats who have left the party, who literally moved to the independent box,” Ruffalo says. “We have to consider what this means. It is not so simple as the party reuniting. It is the rebirth of the party.”
In a new ad put out by the Sanders campaign, Ruffalo and director Matthew Cooke briefly touch on the media and debate by rejoicing at the idea that oil companies will be prosecuted for spreading any smidgen of doubt on "climate change" panic. That's a crime of lying about the environment:
MATTHEW COOKE: I always thought, man, I wish a politician would say I’m going to bring Exxon Mobil to justice for paying millions of dollars for propaganda to lie about the environment....
MARK RUFFALO: When you finally find someone who says ‘No, that’s illegal,’ It does mean something, and I’m going to make sure it means something,’ then you have a champion.
By the way, it's worth nothing that while Ruffalo ends the new Sanders ad with the insistence that in the new Democratic Party, "we take care of each other," in another recent advocacy video, he defended his mother aborting an unborn sibling of his.
Actor Tim Robbins also tore into the media in a campaign speech for Sanders on April 4 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and oddly suggested the "mainstream media" were somehow huge backers of the "rush to war" in Iraq in 2003, which Hillary backed and Sanders opposed. Some of us remember Robbins starring in an ABC piece on the "chill wind" against the peacemakers. But never mind:
There are certain moments in history where political pragmatism can lead to disaster, where a politician’s future ambitions compromise their constituent’s safety and security. These are the moments that define the man or woman. Will that individual risk their political future because of their beliefs? Will they risk being marginalized as radicals and extremists?
All of us that opposed the Iraq war were marginalized. We were called radicals, extremists, terrorist supporters for demanding evidence of weapons of mass destruction before we invaded. We were shouted down by mainstream media. We were threatened, some were intimidated into silence or compliance.
Not Bernie. Bernie faced the same intimidation and remained steadfast. And those that did the politically expedient thing, that didn’t ruffle feathers in an attempt to remain within the status quo, in an attempt to retain their position of power, these people were rewarded. In the media they were promoted, in politics they were re elected, some even received medals for getting it wrong. There were no apologies, there was no reckoning, there was no accountability. This was a defining moment for our country.
At that rally, Sanders underlined this complaint: "Tim Robbins is right, that war has been a disaster for our country and the Middle East in general...I voted against that war, Secretary Clinton voted for that war." Then Robbins made sure people in South Carolina would think twice before patronizing his movies from now on:
No, CNN. Because you ignore Bernie doesn't make him go away. The New York Times can ignore on its front page Bernie's victories in Washington Hawaii and Alaska. We are no longer surprised. We get it. You want Bernie to go away. You want your anointed candidate to win. After the southern primaries you had called the election. And who is fooling who? Winning South Carolina in a Democratic primary is about as significant as winning Guam. No Democrat is going to win South Carolina in the general election. Why did these victories have so much significance?
As we pointed out earlier, Sanders was being interviewed by Jake Tapper on CNN as Sanders backers in Hollywood protested his "blackout" on CNN.
Sanders has appeared alongside Hillary Clinton on six CNN debates or town-hall events.
