Bernie Sanders Campaign Laments ‘Bernie Blackout’: ‘System Is Wrong and Rigged’

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) campaign is frustrated by what it calls the “Bernie blackout,” claiming that the presidential hopeful is not getting adequate coverage from the mainstream media, specifically pertaining to positive stories.

Nina Turner, cochairwoman of Sanders’ presidential campaign, told Hill.TV on Thursday that members of the mainstream media continue to ignore Sanders and suggested that it is part of the “rigged” system.

“The Bernie blackout is real — it’s not a figment of our imagination,” Turner told Hill.TV, contending that Sanders should be covered more given his status as a top tier candidate.

“I don’t want to see any candidate blacked out but certainly not a candidate that is polling in the top one or two and certainly is in the top three of the candidates that could get the Democratic nomination,” she continued, adding that the “system is wrong and rigged.”

This is far from the first time Sanders’ team has taken issue with coverage of his campaign. Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir acknowledged the purported discrepancy in coverage over the summer, telling Politico that there is a “healthy number” of journalists who “find Bernie annoying, discount his seriousness, and wish his supporters and movement would just go away.”

Others within the Sanders campaign have echoed these remarks.

“Every time there is a story about how Bernie can’t win, it fans the flame of our base and we get more donations and more volunteers,” one Sanders campaign aide said during the summer, according to the Hill.

“We’ll never be the favorites in the media. I get it. But when was the last time one of these pundits visited a field office or talked to a state director?” the aide asked.

The socialist senator has seen a swell of support following the recovery from his heart attack and subsequent heart procedure, edging out Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for second place, as recent national polls indicate. That development is reflected in the current RealClearPolitics average, which shows Sanders in second place, 15.6 percent to Warren’s 14.2 percent.