CNN, MSNBC ratchet up attacks against Sanders as Biden surges as Dem alternative

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Is the Democratic establishment teaming up to take down Bernie Sanders?

Democratic presidential candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar call it quits as former Vice President Joe Biden pulls in political endorsements; reaction on 'The Five.'

Democrats have begun coalescing around former Vice President Joe Biden after he won handily in the crucial South Carolina primary on Saturday, but CNN and MSNBC appear to be renewing their hostile coverage of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who the Democratic establishment reportedly fears will run away with the nomination.

There has been a bitter feud between MSNBC and the Sanders campaign in recent weeks as the self-described socialist began emerging as the clear 2020 front-runner. "Meet The Press" anchor Chuck Todd suggested that Sanders supporters were part of a "digital brownshirt brigade," which was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League. "Hardball" host Chris Matthews, who suddenly retired from the network Monday night, similarly invoked the Holocaust by comparing Sanders' victory in Nevada to the Nazi takeover of France. He later apologized for those remarks.

The Sanders campaign had been vocally critical of MSNBC's coverage of the candidate. Campaign manager Faiz Shakir accused the network of "undermining" the front-runner's candidacy.

“It’s been a struggle to change the tone and the tenor of the coverage that we receive,” Shakir told Vanity Fair. “They’ve been among the last to acknowledge that Bernie Sanders’ path to the nomination is real, and even when it’s become real, they frequently discount it.”

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Page Six reported last month that Sanders himself had an explosive confrontation with top MSNBC executives before taking the stage at the network's Democratic debate in Las Vegas, one source saying, “Bernie marched right up to NBC and MSNBC’s head of creative production and began jabbing his finger right in his face, yelling, ‘Your coverage of my campaign is not fair ... Your questions tonight are not going to be fair to me.’ "

He even sparred with network president Phil Griffin, according to Page Six, telling him, "Phil, your network has not been playing a fair role in this campaign. I am upset. Is anything going to change?... I hope you will do better.’"

While it was being reported that Griffin was "taking the complaints seriously," signaling that his network would be turning a new leaf, its coverage of Sanders suggests that the status quo remains.

During its coverage of the South Carolina primary, MSNBC star Rachel Maddow claimed that Sanders "continues to underperform systematically with black voters" despite his placing second among black voters in Nevada and his surge among black voters in recent national polls.

On Monday, "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough appeared to pressure former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to get out of the race since he, as he claims, is not "taking votes away" from Sanders.

“There’s nobody in America that thinks that Michael Bloomberg is taking votes away from Bernie Sanders. What in the world can be his logic of staying in this race when all he’s going to do is take away votes from Bernie Sanders’ competitors?” Scarborough asked.

However, it's not just MSNBC that is going after Sanders.

Over the weekend, CNN host Michael Smerconish asked "Can either coronavirus or Bernie Sanders be stopped?" which was also written in a graphic that was blasted on social media. After facing backlash, CNN told Mediaite, "The banner was wholly inappropriate and a mistake. We are addressing internally."

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CNN was also accused of "choreographing" a Biden endorsement with one of its own contributors.

"Following its first commercial break, Saturday night, after declaring Joe Biden the winner of the South Carolina primary, CNN went right to contributor Terry McAuliffe — the ex-Democratic National Committee chair and former governor of Virginia. McAuliffe... And so — with no numbers yet on the board, but ample evidence pointing to a Biden rout — CNN anchor Anderson Cooper teed up McAuliffe to deliver the big news," Mediaite senior editor Joe DePaolo wrote. "What followed was nothing short of a three-minute Biden commercial, with an unchallenged McAuliffe making the case for his preferred candidate, and — unfathomably — even calling for others to drop out of the race."

He continued, "Joe Biden – prior to a post-South Carolina windfall – could not afford to buy much airtime on CNN. But what he got, in the B-Block on Saturday night, was worth far more than a bushel of 30-second spots... Did CNN, in allowing – and even encouraging – paid network contributor Terry McAuliffe to make his unchallenged endorsement of Joe Biden in the manner that he did, and at the time that he did, intentionally tip the scales in the vice president’s favor?"

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks to supporters during a rally Monday, March 2, 2020, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/George Frey)

Both MSNBC and CNN gave continuous coverage of Biden's Texas rally on Monday evening, featuring his former competitors Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Beto O'Rourke, all who gave their endorsements to the ex-vice president.

A CNN panel on Tuesday compared the group of endorsements to the "Avengers" being assembled to stop Sanders as the declared supervillain "Thanos" in the analogy.

"CNN and MSNBC are essentially recycling bins of old-guard corporate Democratic establishment figures," progressive journalist Jordan Chariton told Fox News. "The metamorphosis from the cacophony of distraught, befuddled, perplexed faces across television news as Bernie Sanders won Iowa, New Hampshire, and crushed Nevada, to the reinvigorated and commanding voices we're now seeing across the corporate media as Joe Biden won South Carolina, should serve as a case study for future media ethics collegiate courses (if those exist anymore)."

He continued, "Watching these partisan, pro-status quo corporatists pretending to be good-faith political analysts is why an overwhelming majority of the country are programmed to think big, substantive change can't really happen in America."

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NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck expressed a similar sentiment, telling Fox News "it's clear as day" that CNN and MSNBC are "feeling much more confident about their chances of securing a Biden nomination."

"CNN and MSNBC have circled the wagons around Biden as their savior to defeat Donald Trump," Houck said. "If you're a Bernie Sanders supporter and watching either channel, what was annoyance or even anger either has already or will be coming to a roaring boil."