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Pelosi’s party patronage network vs the press

January 15, 2022
|In Blog
|By Shahid Buttar

One reason I’m so grateful for our thousands of supporters is the litany of headwinds that we continue to confront. A story published by the San Francisco Examiner offers the latest example of one of them.

Can you stand with us to help level the playing field?

Some of the obstacles we work to overcome are predictable, like the 15:1 fundraising deficit against Pelosi that we faced even after raising $1.6 million in 2020.

Some are at least generalizable among candidates to entrenched incumbents, like the global pandemic that has forced profound changes in campaign tactics over the past two years.

Others among our challenges, however, appear unique to our race. Personally, I see them as reflections of how crucial our campaign is, and how much damage we have already done to the bipartisan consensus underlying corporate rule in Washington.

Can you join us again today to help fight the corporate establishment, and overcome the biased journalism that continues to prop up oligarchs and their dynasties despite their repeated and continuing failures?

The latest example of biased journalism about our race is a story in the San Francisco Examiner exploring the hypothetical possibility that Nancy Pelosi might retire.

First, the story’s premise indulges a fantasy that we all might share, despite the incumbent’s repeated and continuing statements rejecting any suggestion that she retire.

Continuing the theme of indulging conjecture over the facts, the story also focuses entirely on hypothetical candidates who aren’t even running for the seat, while ignoring the one who is not only running, but just won the 2020 primary and then 81,000 votes in November.

It’s almost as if journalists allow DNC operatives to write their stories for them.

Can you support our efforts to ensure a public debate? San Francisco hasn’t had one in 34 years. Forcing a debate is not only a goal of our campaign, but also a crucial step for democracy to enjoy any legitimacy.

Beyond suppressing public visibility of challengers to corporate incumbents, the willingness of journalists to overlook conflicts of interest among establishment politicians and their patronage networks is an even worse example of biased journalism.

For instance, the DCCC blacklist in 2020 incentivized sabotage by former campaign workers, who in several races across the country were co-opted by the establishment to undermine campaigns that they had once worked for.

The most profound example of biased journalism, however, is the press covering Pelosi stenographically, without noting whenever quoting her that she has ducked debates for 34 years.

The press plays a constitutional role: to inform the public. Covering career politicians—or those who represent intergenerational dynasties—without observing their machinations to evade public scrutiny is a failure of not only independence, but ultimately, ethics.

This deference to establishment power threatens the very purpose of journalism: informing the public to enable meaningful democracy.

We know that we confront the most tilted field in U.S. politics, because the incumbent we challenge is the most powerful in the country. While it may be disappointing to observe how the cards are arrayed against us, the bias we have faced among institutions—from ActBlue to Wikipedia, and from the SF Examiner to the Intercept—only strengthens my resolve to secure the transparency and accountability on which democracy and human rights depend.

Thanks for choosing to stand with me! As an immigrant facing a powerful oligarch to defend values that you & I share, I need your help and can’t do it without you.

Happy MLK weekend,

Shahid

PS – You’ll hear from me again this weekend about the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday, and some of the many ways in which Dr. King’s legacy has been watered down and co-opted by the establishment. For now, take a few minutes to read (or, if you prefer, listen to) his iconic Letter from Birmingham Jail. It remains eerily relevant to U.S. politics despite being nearly 60 years old. I’ll explain my analysis of its significance in a few days.

 

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