2020 Democratic hopeful Andrew Yang announced on Twitter he will not appear on MSNBC until the network apologizes for omitting him from their polling graphics.
Last week when reporting the results from a Des Moines Register/CNN poll, MSNBC left out Yang from their on-air reporting. Yang is polling at 3 percent, higher or on par with six other candidates MSNBC included in the graphic.
Yang claims this is the 12th time MSNBC has omitted him from a graphic. He also cited times when MSBNC called him “John Yang,” and recounts how the moderators at the fifth round of democratic debates took 32 minutes to ask him a question.
“The whole time we have gotten stronger. This is actually bad for MSNBC. It will only get worse after I make the next debates and keep rising in the polls. The people are smarter than MSNBC would like to think,” Yang tweeted.
They’ve omitted me from their graphics 12+ times, called me John Yang on air, and given me a fraction of the speaking time over 2 debates despite my polling higher than other candidates on stage. At some point you have to call it.
— Andrew Yang🧢 (@AndrewYang) November 23, 2019
MSNBC has apologized for their “inadvertent” mistake on Twitter, however, the network has yet to apologize on-air.
Earlier on UP, we aired a poll graphic that inadvertently left off @AndrewYang. This was a mistake that we've since corrected on air. We apologize to Mr. Yang. Here's the correct graphic: pic.twitter.com/SDoqsxdiiD
— Velshi on MSNBC (@VelshiMSNBC) November 17, 2019
Only 1,047 people liked MSNBC’s apology tweet, compared to the 1.14 million total viewers that watch MSNBC during the day. That’s a massive gap in coverage for the Yang campaign.
Yang is falling prey to what his supporters call the “#YangMediaBlackout,” the mainstream media’s attempt at blocking out non-establishment, non-traditional Democratic candidates. This is Yang’s first time taking a stance against the mainstream media’s clear attempts to block coverage of his relatively successful campaign.
