COLUMBIA, S.C. — On tour here last week, Bernard Sanders, the unlikeliest of presidential candidate rock stars, played all his populist hits: “income inequality,” “Wall Street reform,” and “tax the rich.” Then the Vermont senator threw in his unique cover of an old campaign trail classic: “hatin’ on the media.”  

As an estimated 2,700 fervent Sanders supporters looked on in a packed, humid South Carolina conference center, the 2016 Democratic hopeful talked — between screams of “I love you Bernie!” — about income inequality, health care, the untaxed rich, the wealthy political donor class, racial inequality, and yes, the media.  

“The American people are sick and tired of establishment economics, they are sick and tired of establishment politics, and they are sick and tired of the establishment media,” Sanders said to cheers in both Columbia and Greenville.  

With the media polling  remarkably low in trustworthiness, it’s not surprising or even uncommon for a candidate to pick the “establishment” media as a foe.  

Sanders made news earlier last week for bucking reporters’ questions in Iowa about Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton (“That’s the sport you guys like.”) and whether Sanders is a career politician, according to The New York Times .  

In Sanders’ defense, sideshow stories permeate public discourse, such as the PPP poll showing an imaginary candidate named Deez Nuts polling at 9 percent in North Carolina, highlighting the trend the Sanders was decrying.  

“Much of the corporate media will talk about everything else in the world except the issues facing ordinary Americans,” Sanders said.  

Sanders railed against the media for not covering what cuts were made in the Republican-passed federal budget, although even a cursory search on sequestration would suggest otherwise.  

Although there was an on-camera exclusive with C-SPAN following the gathering, Sanders did not make himself available to other reporters at either event.  

Related:

Bernie Sanders: Proud non-Democrat


Takoma Park Feels the Bern


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