Wag the Dog - the end of U.S. political news reporting as we know it

There are two times in my life when I have been utterly chilled to the bone observing the shape our democracy is in.  (EDIT: I was born after the murders of JFK and Bobby K, MLK Jr and Malcolm X.) The first was when all the Occupy Wall Street encampments were being dismantled by S.W.A.T. teams. The second was after last night's democratic presidential debate as the viewer polls showed an absolute landslide favoring Bernie Sanders but it was evident that reporters were in a haste to declare Hillary Clinton as the clear winner.  They probably had the articles written ahead of time and just plugged in a few quotes afterward before hitting send.

Perhaps I've been living under a rock, but until last night's presidential debate, I was still under the impression that political reporting was at least in part about following voter trends.  In theory anyway, we voters are still the ones who actually determine who wins an election, right?

Well, not if the media has anything to say about it. As I predicted late last night, today the news is gushing over Hillary (who is a seasoned debater and comes across strong on stage, but has not managed to win popular support) and ignoring viewer polls that show Bernie claiming anywhere from 60-80% of the "vote." Also still present in the media commentary following the debate was the desperate desire to pull Joe Biden into the race .. you know, incase the public means it, incase we're really not going to vote for her; maybe we'll vote for him instead. It's clear whose support Hillary has; what's less clear is why we don't have a country full of dissenters who are taking to the streets protesting our whitewashed media (unless you count Bernie Sanders supporters attending rallies, who are overflowing arenas where the rallies are being held). We've duped most of the country so thoroughly they have no idea what they're witnessing is propaganda.

I never thought I'd suggest this but at the moment, make a habit of reading the comments.  That's where the news is. As previously, the comment section below articles hailing Clinton are full of "WTF?? Sanders!" comments. Nearly every comment. Like "Guys, are you listening??? Guys, hello??"

No one's listening, guys.

It's over.

Go home.