Despite Iowa poll average showing Sanders in solid 2nd, CNN uses old poll to show him in 4th

"Looking forward to winning this thing without the assist."

By Eoin Higgins

Published December 27, 2019 3:00AM (EST)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) attends a news conference to introduce legislation to transform public housing as part of the Green New Deal outside the U.S. Capitol November 14, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) attends a news conference to introduce legislation to transform public housing as part of the Green New Deal outside the U.S. Capitol November 14, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

This article originally appeared at Common Dreams. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.

After CNN on Monday reportedly twice displayed a six-week-old poll from Iowa showing Bernie Sanders in fourth-place among hopefuls for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination to viewers, ignoring more recent polling showing the Vermont senator climbing to a strong second behind South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, progressives struck back.

CNN, which brands itself as "the most trusted name in news," used a CNN/Des Moines Register survey from mid-November showing Sanders in fourth place with 15% of Iowans backing his bid. Real Clear Politics shows the senator with support of 22% and 21%, second to Soouth Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, in more recent polling.

Sanders rival Julián Castro was among those who took to Twitter to decry the choice, saying that just because it was CNN's poll, that didn't justify presenting the old information to viewers in late December.

"Publish a timely poll instead," Castro added. "Journalistic integrity shouldn't be sacrificed for corporate interests."

Sanders press secretary Briahna Joy Gray pointed to recent troubles for other top-line campaigns as a possible motivation for the use of the poll and said that Sanders would happily soldier on without the help of the corporate media.

"Honestly, this is just embarrassing for the campaigns that need this kind of boost to appear competitive after having a bad week," said Gray. "Looking forward to winning this thing without the assist."

The CNN poll wasn't the only instance of perceived bias against the Sanders campaign from the mainstream media, dubbed the "Bernie Blackout" by the senator's supporters.

As Common Dreams reported over the weekend, Sanders held a 14,000-person-strong rally in Los Angeles Saturday with supporters including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), professor and activist Cornel West, actor Tim Robbins, and others.

But the Los Angeles Times did not do much in the eyes of observers to cover the event, despite the size and Sanders' top-place polling in California.

"This is irresponsible, and will help Trump get re-elected," tweeted Sanders supporter Eric Erdman. "Bernie is the best candidate to take on Trump."


By Eoin Higgins

Eoin Higgins is a journalist in New England. He writes the Flashpoint newsletter.

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