Tipsheet

Clinton Laments the ‘Very Difficult Media Environment’ Democrats Face

Hillary Clinton thinks media coverage is biased against Democrats. Seriously. 

In a “Pod Save America” podcast Tuesday, which is hosted by speechwriters to former President Obama, Clinton lamented the disadvantages her party faces in terms of media coverage. She warned it would be a continuing problem for Democrats in the future.  

“I think we are facing a couple of very difficult obstacles. First, the other side has dedicated propaganda channels, that’s what I call Fox News. It has outlets like Breitbart and crazy infowars and things like that,” she said. “In this particular election it was aided and abetted by the Russians and the role that Facebook and other platforms played. We are late to that. We did not understand how a reality TV campaign would so dominate the media environment.”

She explained that she tried to build on Obama’s campaign successes, but ultimately was unable to “break through.” 

In the future she said she believes Democrats “are still going to face a very difficult media environment.” 

To help remedy the situation, she proposed alternative ways of getting their voices out.

"I mean obviously more podcasts, more other ways of communicating so voices can be heard and real positions can be understood is part of it," she said. "But we're still at a disadvantage.

Later in the interview she questioned why more Democrats “aren’t more willing to invest in media that can be competitive.”

“Cause what you’ve got is a right-wing advocacy propaganda and you’ve got a kind of mainstream media that engages in false equivalency,” she continued. 

She also came back to the point she made earlier about how Democrats have a hard time “trying to navigate through that, to get the coverage that is really going to reflect he reality that you’re facing out there on the campaign.” 

Clinton's interview comes as a new report reveals the media's coverage of President Trump during the summer months was overwhelmingly negative. The Media Research Center found that "broadcast evening news coverage of Trump was 91 percent negative." So for Clinton to argue that it's Democrats who face a difficult media environment is patently absurd.