On Thursday, CBS This Morning cheered Bernie Sanders’ “unconventional presidential campaign” as “evidence that a lot of little gatherings can add up to one massive crowd.”
Host Charlie Rose lauded Sanders for “showing us again this morning that his campaign his different. The Vermont Senator could not leave Washington, so he streamed a speech to thousands of small gatherings around the country.”
Reporter Nancy Cordes didn’t hold back in her promotion of Sanders’ campaign event which had “[n]early 105,000 people RSVP’d to host or attend house parties across the country, partly to hear Sanders speak but more importantly to get their marching orders.”
The CBS reporter labeled Sanders the “crusader for income equality and a $15/hour minimum wage” and while his campaign was “struggling to convert the energy at his events into an army of nationwide volunteers. So last night they deputized the volunteers to organize themselves.”
Cordes and her CBS colleagues never labeled Sanders as a socialist, which he himself identifies as, but instead framed his latest “atypical campaign event fit for an atypical candidate.”
When Cordes spoke to Sanders at his campaign event she did not press him on some of his far left political views but chose to focus on his efforts to compete with Hillary Clinton: “Do you think that this can narrow the gap between you and some of your more well-funded opponents?”
The CBS reporter concluded her pro-Sanders piece by admiring the recent rise in the polls he has experienced against Clinton as of late:
Sanders has been gaining ground in early states trailing Clinton by just ten points in New Hampshire, according to a poll out this week, but to get his supporters to the polls, he's going to need a fleet of operatives on the ground whether they get paid or not.
Over the last several months, Bernie Sanders has received overwhelmingly positive coverage from the press. On July 7, CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley spotlighted the socialist “coming up fast” in Hillary’s “rear-view mirror” and reporter Julianna Goldman preferred to label him a “populist” rather than acknowledge his true political ideology.
In February, ABC reporter David Wright promoted the “unabashedly progressive” Sanders who “rails against the corrupting influence of money in politics. He stands for economic justice.”
See relevant transcript below.
CBS This Morning
July 30, 2015
[Tease] NORAH O’DONNELL: There's more real news ahead, including the unconventional presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders. New evidence that a lot of little gatherings can add up to one massive crowd
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CHARLIE ROSE: Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is showing us again this morning that his campaign is different. The Vermont Senator could not leave Washington, so he streamed a speech to thousands of small gatherings around the country. Nancy Cordes is in Washington where she talked with Sanders after last night’s big gathering. Nancy good morning.
NANCY CORDES: Good morning, Charlie. And the campaign is actually billing this as the largest event for any presidential candidate so far this season. Nearly 105,000 people RSVP’d to host or attend house parties across the country, partly to hear Sanders speak but more importantly to get their marching orders.
BERNIE SANDERS: Tonight really was an historical night.
CORDES: Sanders was beamed from a living room from Southwest D.C. to as many as 3,500 other parties. Allentown, Pennsylvania, New Orleans, Lakewood, Ohio, Arlington, Massachusetts, Los Angeles.
SANDERS: Talk to your brothers and your sisters, your co-workers, your family members, bring them into the movement.
CORDES: Senator Sanders has big crowds but a small budget. The crusader for income equality and a $15/hour minimum wage raised $15 million last quarter compared to Hillary Clinton's $45 million. His skeleton staff was struggling to convert the energy at his events into an army of nationwide volunteers. So last night they deputized the volunteers to organize themselves.
CLAIRE SANDBERG: If you want to be a coordinator, we will give you how-to guides, support, training, and materials so you won't be on your own.
CORDES: At a beer hall in Brooklyn, 150 supporters watched on a projection screen. Engineer Axel Jensen [sic] got the message.
AXEL JENSEN: I plan on doing whatever I can to get him elected, however possible that is.
CORDES: Sanders himself spoke from a packed two-bedroom apartment where the kitchen sink served as a cooler and the host made drinks in the hallway.
UNKNOWN PERSON: The drink’s name is Bernie’s [sic] cocktail.
CORDES: As in Bernie Sanders?
UNKNOWN: Uh huh.
UNKNOWN PERSON 2: It kind of feels like a little bit of grassroots.
CORDES: An atypical campaign event fit for an atypical candidate. [To Sanders] Do you think that this can narrow the gap between you and some of your more well-funded opponents?
SANDERS: It does. Yes, yes. And at the end of the day, they will have more money to put TV ads on than we will, that's true. But if we can assemble and get hundreds of thousands of people out of the street, you know what? We will win.
CORDES: Sanders has been gaining ground in early states trailing Clinton by just ten points in New Hampshire, according to a poll out this week, but to get his supporters to the polls, he's going to need a fleet of operatives on the ground whether they get paid or not, Gayle.
GAYLE KING: Alright, thank you Nancy. Seems like a kind of a genius way to reach people.
O’DONNELL: Absolutely, yeah.
KING: He's certainly got the enthusiasm.
