After losing the presidential election ten months ago, Hillary Clinton is still on the blame game tour, this time to promote her election memoir What Happened, which was released today, September 12. She continued the whining and pointing of fingers during her appearance on the liberal podcast, “Pod Save America,” which is hosted by former speechwriters for President Obama.
Specifically, Clinton called out the media for putting Democrats at a “disadvantage” saying the media played a “false equivalency” with her and Trump in their reporting. Clinton also blamed right wing media outlets for not giving Democrats a fair advantage (because supposedly there is no left wing media outlets, right?)
Right off the bat, the liberal interviewers were out for the cheap shots against the right. Jon Favreau, Obama’s former speechwriter, began by asking Clinton what advice she had for future female presidential candidates, but colored his question with charges of sexism:
“What advice would you give them about how to grapple with the kind of sexism that you grappled with during the campaign?” he asked.
“I’m so glad you started with that Jon,” Clinton happily obliged. “We have to deal with” these issues, she explained, “so they won’t have the same impact on the next election, and the one after that.” She added that she wrote a whole chapter on the topic of sexism in politics, and of course complained about Trump, the sexist. “We can’t allow ourselves to go backwards,” she lamented.
The second question focused on Democratic party. Clinton blamed Bernie Sanders for not immediately endorsing her as the candidate, before shifting the blame to right wing media “propaganda channels” as the real problem Democrats face:
I think we face a number of obstacles. The other side has dedicated propaganda channels.That’s what I call Fox News. It has outlets like Breitbart, and you know crazy InfoWars and things like that. In this particular election, it was aided and abetted by Russians and the role that Facebook and other platforms played. We are late to that.We did not understand how a reality TV campaign would so dominate the media environment.
I think the Democrats can do a lot, but they're still going to face a very difficult media environment. And we've got to figure out how we're going to break through.I mean obviously more podcasts, more other ways of communicating so voices can be heard and real positions can be understood is part of it.
"But we're still at a disadvantage," she whined.
After some more questions about the Democrat party, Clinton brought up the right’s alleged “media advantage” yet again:
The new threat that’s coming from Sinclair broadcasting. 72%+ of the homes in America being given a steady diet of right-wing Republican politics. Fox doesn’t even pretend anymore. They don’t even cover stuff that’s not going to promote the Trump agenda, so you’ve got billions and billions of dollars coming at you from the other direction, and literally you’re trying to keep your head above water, and it’s not easy.
Clinton added that had she been in office, she would’ve gone after the Republicans' “media monopolization:”
“I would really be taking all of that on, and I fear it’s only going to get worse,” she complained. “We’re really at a disadvantage,” she repeated again.
Later on, she said that the left needed to invest in it’s own media, because of the threat of right wing “propaganda” and a mainstream media “that engages in false equivalency:”
Well, I don't understand why people who share our views aren't more willing to invest in media that can be competitive. Because what you've got is a right-wing advocacy propaganda and you've got a kind of mainstream media that engages in false equivalency. And it's tough if you are a Democrat trying to navigate through that, to get the coverage that is really going to reflect the reality that you're facing out there on the campaign.
Lest Clinton need reminding, the media coverage of her opponent was not even close to balanced. In the 12 weeks after Trump was announced as the Republican nominee, he received 91% hostile media coverage, on the three major networks. Yet just 38% of Clinton’s airtime during that period focused on her scandals. While Clinton complains the media engaged in false equivalencies, Donald Trump’s comments about women in the leaked Access Hollywood tape received far more coverage than any of her scandals, such as the Clinton Foundation’s spending, which earned less than 5 minutes of coverage from January to May in 2016.
You can listen to entire 47 minute long interview through this mp3 stream, or find it on Itunes.
H/T Free Beacon, which also uploaded a 1-minute clip from the 47 minute interview onto Youtube, below:
