Andrew Yang Supporters Push ‘Yang Media Blackout’ Hashtag After Another CNN Exclusion

While Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s exclusion from mainstream media coverage doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon, his supporters aren’t ready to stop calling it out, either. In a recent Fox News poll, Yang was tied at 2 percent with Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar. Despite Yang polling in sixth overall with 2.7 percent, while Booker and Klobucher both have 1.3 percent, only Booker made it onto the candidate chyron.

One of the 44-year-old entrepreneur’s most vocal supporters, universal basic income (UBI) advocate Scott Santens, pointed out the omission on Twitter and added it to his growing thread that compiles all of Yang’s media exclusions to date. He also pushed the ‘Yang Media Blackout” hashtag, which has become the go-to response for such omissions and has prompted many of his followers to do the same.

Much like fellow candidate Bernie Sanders, Yang has had a tough go getting a fair shake from mainstream media outlets that have traditionally been the gatekeepers for political candidates. The pair also appear to have some overlap in their base, with Reuters polling data suggesting that Sanders supporters are three times more likely to put Yang as their second choice than backers of the two other frontrunners in the race, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden.

CNN: "We only have room for one of the three candidates who polled at 2% in this poll. Let's go with Booker again. Sure he's in 8th, while @AndrewYang is in 6th by RCP avg, but we really want that to change. And let's put Booker in the chyron too."#YangMediaBlackout #YangGang pic.twitter.com/7FKiecoP9G

— Scott Santens (@scottsantens) October 13, 2019

Yang’s UBI proposal is what he believes is at least part of the solution to the increasing automation of jobs in the U.S. economy. He has made an effort to distance himself from the theories that media pundits suggest created the rise of Donald Trump, such as racism, Hillary Clinton, and Russia.

“The real catalyst and the numbers – I’m a numbers guy – is that we automated away four million manufacturing jobs in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa. And if that list of states sounds familiar, those are the states that Donald Trump needed to win, and did win.”

Per Next Shark, Yang also hopes that his campaign will inspire Asian Americans to take the leap into politics.

“I hope my campaign energizes Asian Americans as I think the country would benefit from our becoming more politically engaged. That would make me very happy,” he said.

Yang is set to take the October debate stage this Tuesday — the most packed one to date — alongside Biden, Warren, Sanders, Booker, Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke, Julian Castro, Tulsi Gabbard, and Tom Steyer. The stage is organized with the higher polling candidates toward the center of the stage.

Yang has also qualified for the November debate, which has yet to get an air date.