Media's Coronation of Clinton Belies Sanders' Path Toward Victory

'The pundits might not like it,' Sanders said on Sunday night, 'but the people are making history.'

by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer

Despite winning three out of four primary contests over the weekend, despite polling better against Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton in nearly all blue, purple, and light-red states, and despite his continued fundraising prowess, Bernie Sanders keeps getting written off by the corporate media.

"Last night, Secretary Clinton said she was ready for this primary to be over, and if you listen to some of our friends in the political establishment and corporate media, it sounds like they're ready for the same," Sanders declared in a letter to supporters on Tuesday. 

"The pundits might not like it," he said on Sunday night, "but the people are making history."

"I don't want to disturb the media narrative too much—don’t get people too upset, but don’t write us off," the U.S. senator from Vermont told the New York Times. "I think we have a path toward victory."

Indeed, Sanders has vowed to take his campaign for the presidency all the way to the Democratic National Convention in June.

What's more, looking at an accurate tally of "pledged" delegates—as opposed to super delegates—paints a electoral picture that is "dramatically different" than the narrative "being pushed by establishment media outlets," journalist Kevin Gosztola wrote on Monday. 

"True and accurate numbers are the following," Gosztola explained. "[A]fter 'Super Saturday,' Clinton has 663 pledged delegates. Sanders has 459 pledged delegates. Clinton needs 1,720 delegates to win. Sanders needs 1,924 delegates to win."

Those numbers are "accurate," he said, "because 'super delegates,' or party leaders, can shift their support at any time. If Sanders wins more primaries than Clinton, there is no reason to think the vast majority of 'super delegates' would defy voters and go with Clinton over Sanders. Doing so would be devastating for the party, especially going into an election against a populist Republican candidate like Donald Trump."

But whether by ignoring his successes or actively undermining them, "political and media elites keep angling for an opening to declare that the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is finished," national affairs correspondent John Nichols wrote at The Nation on Monday.

The problem is, Nichols pointed out, Sanders "keeps complicating things"—by winning.

Yet it is Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)—winner of just two primaries—whose path forward is still being charted by news outlets, as International Business Times editor David Sirota pointed out on Twitter. This dynamic has been in place since the Iowa caucus, when Rubio's third place finish garnered more attention than Sanders' near-tie with Clinton.