Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders

Can you imagine an America led by a president who believes the country needs "more reporters covering the healthcare crisis, climate emergency and economic inequality" rather than a multitude "of TV pundits paid tens of millions of dollars to pontificate about frivolous political gossip, as local news outlets are eviscerated."

Would you support a commander-in-chief who understands that "real journalism is different from the gossip, punditry and clickbait that dominates today's news."

Do you want a president who stands tall against "corporate conglomerates and hedge fund vultures that have bought and consolidated beleaguered local newspapers and slashed their newsrooms—all while giving executives big payouts?"

Are you eager for a president who wants to revitalize journalism so that every working reporter doesn't have to face "six people working in public relations pushing a corporate line?"

Wouldn't it be refreshing to live in a nation, where the head of state doesn't spend his/her time "demonizing journalists when they dare to debunk his lies" or trashing them as "enemies of the people" "in a deliberate attempt to destroy the very idea of a free press."

Do you agree that: "We need to rebuild and protect a diverse and truly independent press so that real journalists can do the critical jobs that they love and that a functioning democracy requires."

If so, read Bernie Sanders' "plan for journalism" op-ed that ran in the Columbia Journalism Review.

The Vermont Senator believes the founding fathers understood that a robust and independent free press is vital to democracy.

He warns: "More than two centuries after the constitution was signed, we cannot sit by and allow corporations, billionaires and demagogues to destroy the Fourth Estate, nor can we allow them to replace serious reporting with infotainment and propaganda."