It’s time to face the facts: The corporate media can’t be trusted to report fairly on Democratic primaries. Insurgent challengers are routinely ignored — until the party establishment starts smearing them.
Take Alex Morse, whose challenge to a 32-year incumbent in deep-blue Massachusetts looked at first like a long shot.
Few national outlets covered his campaign, even as he rose in the polls and set grassroots fundraising records. But many didn’t hesitate to report breathlessly on a bizarre public letter “accusing” him of having consensual relationships with unnamed college students.
Then The Intercept began investigating. My colleagues and I discovered that the letter was coordinated with state party officials and operatives looking to torpedo Morse’s campaign — who then tried unsuccessfully to delete communications records once we began asking questions.
Reporting on the seedy underbelly of the political establishment is difficult and time-consuming, and there are no corporate advertisers bankrolling our nonprofit newsroom.
Democratic Party officials are typically supposed to be neutral in contested primaries. But over and over again, they get away with putting their thumbs on the scales.
And they get away with it because the corporate media doesn’t bother to report on the story. Many of the outlets that reported on the accusations against Morse still haven’t bothered to update their readers on The Intercept’s revelations. Rachel Maddow even lives in the district, but MSNBC has refused to touch the story.
Alex Morse told the New York Times that he nearly dropped out of the race in the wake of the allegations against him — before we even had a chance to begin investigating them.
A genuine democracy requires free and independent reporting that goes beyond the boundaries set by entrenched party leaders. As this election season goes on, The Intercept needs your support to continue our coverage. Can you chip in and help close our $30,000 budget gap?
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