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Bernie Sanders adds streaming video to ‘corporate media’ in California push

The Vermont Senator selected Revolt TV and The Young Turks to deliver his get-out-the-vote message.

Bernie Sanders Campaigns In East Los Angeles
Bernie Sanders Campaigns In East Los Angeles
David McNew / Getty

Bernie Sanders has no love for the “corporate media” — in fact, his contempt is almost Cruzian in its disdain.

It’s no surprise, then, that the Vermont Senator is tapping into alternative forms of media to reach voters — particularly younger voters — in California as the June 7 Democratic primary approaches. The latest poll shows Sanders in a dead heat with Hillary Clinton.

Sanders is the first presidential candidate to appear on Revolt TV, the music- and pop-culture-focused network founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs. Today’s appearance was billed as a “social media conversation” that was simultaneously livestreamed and carried on the television network.

The candidate opened his appearance with a long, uninterrupted stump speech, then answered questions posed on social media (#REVOLT2Vote) by USC students and from host Christopher Prudhome of Vote America Now, a group whose mission is to motivate millennials to vote.

Sanders plans to sit down Friday with The Young Turks, a livestreamed show with a segment devoted to American politics. This marks the second time Sanders agreed to an extensive interview with host Cenk Uygur, a friendly interlocutor who has introduced Sanders at several California rallies.

The insurgent Democratic candidate Sanders is walking a difficult path when it comes to corporate media — using forums like Revolt TV to criticize the editorial choices of the news operations while simultaneously calling on one of the major networks to broadcast a proposed debate with the Republican party’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.

Sanders’s conflicted posture was on display throughout this week’s swing through Southern California, where he slammed the Walt Disney Co. over pay and working conditions in a campaign stop in Anaheim, the home of Disneyland.

Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger used his personal Facebook page to fire back at Sanders, posting, “We created 11,000 new jobs at Disneyland in the past decade ... How many jobs have you created?”

Tonight, the same media company will feature Sanders as a guest on its ABC network late-night talk show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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