Thread by @PalmerReport

Joe Biden, who has a 15-20 point lead in the primary race, is indisputably the current "frontrunner." The media is right to call him that. Funny, though. Hillary had a 15-20 point lead over Bernie for the entire 2016 primary race, and the media never called her the "frontrunner."

The media handed the 2016 election to Trump by spending every day trying to manufacture ratings by lying about Hillary's emails and Hillary's poll numbers. It's over and done. But we MUST watch to see if the media tries to do the same crap to Biden or to any other 2020 candidate.

Biden's biggest vulnerability right now is that his lead is too big. If the media fears the primary race will be uncompetitive, it won't hesitate to kneecap Biden in the hope of shrinking his lead and turning the race into something more competitive and ratings-friendly.

This kind of ratings-based media manipulation happens in every election cycle. The media romanticized Bernie in 2016 and Beto in 2018, for the sake of ratings. But the media has moved on and is now romanticized Mayor Pete (thus far) in 2020 for ratings.

Are Beto and Bernie worse candidates in 2020 than they were the last time they each ran for something? No. For better or worse, they're exactly the same candidates they've always been. But because the media is no longer romanticizing them, their poll numbers are terrible.

You see this in every field of reporting. Sports analysts on TV always try to manufacture ratings by creating phony scandals about any team that's dominating too thoroughly. But it rarely affects the outcome, because the game winner isn't decided by a vote of the fans.

If you "disagree" with anything in this thread, you're disagreeing with the FACTS. This is how the media operates; they literally exist for ratings and no other factor. It's how elections work. Until you grasp this, you'll be confused by everything that happens in every election.

All that said, Biden is far from a lock to be the nominee, mainly due to the sheer number of quality opponents who are still establishing themselves nationally. Their numbers will climb, taking votes away from some other pile. Could come from “undecided.” Could come from Biden.

However much/little attention you think Biden’s handsiness should get, here’s how it really works. The media is giving it no attention now, while it doesn’t feel the need to scandalize Biden for ratings. The media will make it a huge story later if Biden needs to be scandalized.

This isn’t to arbitrarily demonize major media outlets. But they’re multimillion dollar for-profit businesses. Even the ones that try to do good work when they can, they must do it within the confines of answering to accountants and shareholders.

I’m on the left, but the left has a character flaw: lots of liberals love to get behind an arbitrary underdog and dishonestly bash the Dem frontrunner, because it makes them feel cool. But this only damages the frontrunner if the media repeats the lies the malcontents make up.

So many of the replies make clear how many of you still don’t get why political media outlets exist. It’s about nabbing ratings and MAKING MONEY, not about pushing ideology for its own sake. nothing about media or elections will ever make sense to you until accept that fact.

Yes, your favorite MSNBC host really is a liberal who hopes the Democrat wins. And a Fox host really is a conservative who hopes the GOP wins. But these people have to script their show each day with RATINGS as their primary guidepost. Steering public opinion is a distant second.

You trust Rachel Maddow? So do I. But that’s because she’s so good, she can hit her ratings marks with little to no bullshit. The less talented the host (on any network), the more bullshit antics they need to get their ratings. Low ratings hosts get canceled.