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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 3/18/18

Bernie Sanders Wants to Tell the Story That Corporate Media Fails To Tell

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From The Nation

Frustrated with the media's neglect of economic issues that matter to the working class, the senator tells The Nation how he'll use live-streaming to force the issue.

For decades, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has objected to the failure of major media outlets to cover the growth of economic inequality in America. As a presidential contender in 2016, he used every opportunity that was afforded him in the media to address poverty, plutocracy and the consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of "the billionaire class."

Now, he's doing something to tip the balance of the popular discourse away from the agendas of the super rich and toward the real life concerns of working-class Americans. Something big. On Monday, from 7 to 8:30 pm ET, he will host a live-streamed town hall meeting on "Inequality in America: The Rise of Oligarchy and Collapse of the Middle Class." With Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, filmmaker Michael Moore, economist Darrick Hamilton and others, Sanders will lead a discussion about the "growing power of corporate interests and how we can build economy that works for all Americans." Livestreamed on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube by Sanders, Warren, Moore, The Guardian, NowThis, The Young Turks and Act.tv, the initiative will reach social media sites with a combined following of close to 50 million Americans.

Sanders spoke with The Nation about what he hopes to accomplish.

The Nation: You say there are two fundamental issues with inequality. What's the first?

Sanders: The first one is that this country is moving into oligarchy. The three wealthiest people in this country own more wealth than the bottom half of American society. The top one-tenth of one percent now owns as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. And then, politically, what we have seen since the Citizens United decision (by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010) is billionaires like the Koch brothers and a few of their friends pouring hundreds and hundreds of dollars into the political process to elect candidates who represent the wealthy and the powerful. That is an issue of huge consequence to the future of America -- in terms of the economic life of this country and the collapse of the middle class, and a political system which is being corrupted by big money and Citizens United.

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