Shame on the national media for focusing more on the motive of the WikiLeaks email dump and less on the content of what was uncovered — that the Democratic National Committee sought to rig the primary in favor of Hillary Clinton.
All it took was one conspiracy theory created by the Clinton team — that Russia is behind the 20,000 leaked DNC emails — for many in the media to ignore the real outrage here.
Namely that Bernie Sanders got a raw deal from his own party.
Liberal-leaning political pundits, in pushing Russia’s involvement in the email hack, are only perpetuating the political injustice the Sanders campaign endured during the Vermont senator’s quest for the White House.
For months Sanders claimed DNC operatives were working against him, and on the eve of the Democratic National Convention he was finally vindicated. In one particularly ugly email, Brad Marshall, CFO of the DNC, suggested the someone should raise questions about Sanders’ Jewish heritage
“He had skated on having a Jewish heritage. I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My southern baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist,” Marshall wrote.
The WikiLeaks emails also showed the cozy relationships the DNC has cultivated with mainstream media like Politico. So perhaps it’s not surprising that many of these outlets appear to be all too willing to collude with the Clinton campaign and push the narrative that Russia is trying to influence the presidential election.
Yesterday’s top story on the New York Times’ website was “In Hacking, Russia Accused of Playing in U.S. Politics.” Clinton campaign chief Robby Mook told ABC News, “Experts are telling us that Russian state actors broke into the DNC, took all these emails and now are leaking them out through these websites. . . . It’s troubling that some experts are now telling us that this was done by the Russians for the purpose of helping Donald Trump.”
The only silver lining in this mess is that Sanders’ most hated adversary, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz, got fired as DNC chair. CFO Marshall should get canned too.
This email controversy isn’t just a “distraction” that Clinton supporters are claiming. It’s a massive scandal that’s rocking the Democratic party and infuriating the millions of Sanders’ supporters who feel the system is corrupt.
And no amount of spin can blunt that harsh truth.
Copyright © 2024 Jaclyn Cashman.
