That Sanders's surge is discomfiting the MSNBC crowd is a pleasant thing to contemplate, but in practical terms it may end up a significant obstacle.
Bernie Sanders Has an MSNBC Problem (The New Republic)
Sanders has framed himself as an outsider, taking on the political establishment as a democratic socialist. But as he has surged in the polls—he now leads Biden with all voters—he is increasingly running up against another establishment: the media, and particularly cable news.
...In fact, the supposedly liberal network, MSNBC, has become a serious obstacle, pumping out Republican anti-Sanders talking points with increasing frequency.
After last Friday’s Democratic debate, Chris Matthews waxed apoplectic about what electing a socialist could mean for America. “I have an attitude towards [Fidel] Castro,” he said. “I believe if Castro and the Reds had won the Cold War there would have been executions in Central Park, and I might have been one of the ones getting executed...."
Two days later, James Carville, Bill Clinton’s former campaign guru, went on Morning Joe to rant about how a Sanders nomination would bring about the apocalypse....The same day, Chuck Todd, who also hosts NBC’s Meet the Press, read from an article from the right-wing website The Bulwark comparing supporters of Sanders, who is Jewish, to “brownshirts.”
MSNBC has become the home network for Democratic elites and their new allies in the national security-industrial complex: the wing of the Democratic Party that must be destroyed. But that leaves Sanders without a TV home. Whether social media and the enthusiasm of young (often cord-cutting) voters can overcome that will be a major factor in the primaries.
On the other hand, MSNBC's vile and obvious fact-free loathing -- comparing the Jewish candidate's supporters to brownshirts -- may be hastening the fall of the Democrat's neocon right wing, so, there is that.