No, Fox News, Bernie Sanders Did Not Honeymoon In The Soviet Union

When Hillary Clinton was running away with the Democratic nomination, it was not unusual to hear Fox News pundits pumping up Bernie Sanders. It wasn’t because they admired his progressive policies or his grassroots appeal. It was because they reflexively jumped at any opportunity to knock Clinton down a peg.

Now that the Sanders campaign is actually looking competitive, the same Foxies are getting nervous and looking for ways to discredit him. The primary line of attack has been to feverishly repeat that Sanders is a (gasp) Socialist. Under ordinary circumstances that would be sufficient to rattle the fear centers of their perpetually anxious viewers.

Bernie Sanders Honeymoon

However, these are not ordinary times. Consequently, more creative measures were required by the Fox punditocracy. So they brought in Jamie Weinstein, senior editor of Tucker Carlson’s ultra-rightist Daily Caller, to slip a brazen lie into the discussion at the very end when there was no time left for it to be rebutted. The segment sought to concern-troll Clinton’s less commanding, but still substantial, lead over Sanders, while simultaneously dismissing the surging challenger as a far-left crank.

Where the broadcast went off the rails was at the end when Weinstein concluded his final diatribe by making an assertion that was utterly false and intended to defame Sanders. He offered as evidence of Sanders supposed extremism that he had spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union. That allegation is almost laughable, but it will assuredly be swallowed whole by Fox’s dimwitted viewers. Following Weinstein’s false comment, Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett smiled and noted that you learn something new every day. The problem is that, with Fox News, what you learn each day just makes you more stupid than you were the day before.

The origin of the this made-for-Fox fallacy was a 2007 interview of Sanders’ wife, Jane, by Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility. In the interview she was describing how she and Bernie met and some of their early engagements which were almost entirely related to their shared interest in community affairs. They were so involved in these sort of activities that she joked…

“The day after we got married, we marched in a Memorial Day Parade, and then we took off in a plane to start the sister city project with Yaroslovl with 10 other people on my honeymoon.”

The context was obviously humorous. Who could possibly read that and come away thinking that she seriously meant that they honeymooned with ten other people who were implementing a sister city project? Well, apparently Weinstein and others of his ilk came away believing just that. Weinstein likely picked up the lie from uber-conservative John Fund who wrote an article for the National Review containing the same misrepresentation of Sanders’ diplomatic trip.

We are going to have to get used to wingnuts hyperventilating over the political labels attached to Sanders. Today there was an extended discussion on Fox’s The Five about “Sanders’ Socialist Agenda.” At no time during the broadcast did anyone on the show identify any policy advocated by Sanders that they could actually call Socialist (if they really have any idea what the word means). The policies they did mention were his support for higher taxes on the rich, for expanding access to education, and for single-payer healthcare. Those are pretty mainstream policies that millions of Americans support. And the right has been absurdly calling Obama a Socialist for so long that the word has lost all meaning.

News Corpse Presents: The ALL NEW 2nd volume of
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

There was also much feigned hand-wringing about whether Sanders was going to pull Clinton farther to the left and damage her electability in the general election. The consensus on the program was that she was already a far-left candidate without Sanders’ influence. But these cretins think that just being a Democrat means being far-left. What they don’t realize is that Sanders’ platform leans to the mainstream of the American people who elected President Obama twice. Any effect he has on Clinton moving in that direction will only enhance her electability. So bring it on, and don’t complain if the people once again reject the regressive and repressive policies of the Republican Party in November of 2016.

Advertisement:

56 thoughts on “No, Fox News, Bernie Sanders Did Not Honeymoon In The Soviet Union

  1. Please proceed, Fox. The thousands of people who are coming out for Bernie at every stop will never watch your shows, will never even hear your lies, and frankly, could care less what you people are raving about. They are trying to leave a better world for their kids, have a better life for themselves while they are here, and make sure others are not taking advantage of them. Can you state any goals that Fox supports that are anything close to that? You have been screaming “SOCIALIST” ever since Obama was elected, and people look around and say, “Who cares?” What they see is that their gay friends are now safer; their neighbors are no longer going bankrupt because they have huge medical problems; their kids get to stay on their insurance until 26; and jobs are finally returning, and with better wages, so Cousin Pete doesn’t have to work three jobs to support his family. Heck, even their home value is returning to pre-2005 levels. Also, their sons are not being recruited to go die in the Middle East. You know what else people see? A GOP who STILL fights the infrastructure bills that will fix our country and crete millions of god jobs. A GOP who STILL insists they will gut the ACA. A GOP who is more concerned with a 175 year old traitor’s flag than they are with doing anything about the hate in this nation but stirring it up. A GOP who sits on their hands when 3 year olds are killing themselves with grandpa’s gun “Oh, the poor grandparents; this is so hard for them.” And a GOP who is determined to take away every reproductive right from women, and who refuses to even acknowledge the hate for immigrants and blacks that they stir up daily. So, please proceed. Call Bernie and Hillary names. The fact remains that the GOP does nothing for the people, because their goal is power, not productivity. And the fact that Bernie points that out and makes you crazy? Who cares?

    • Nice rant, Sally, and well said.

      • Utter bullshit, sally.
        ”Another one was the Soviet city of Yaroslavl, about 170 miles northeast of Moscow. Sanders departed for the city the day after he married his wife, Jane, in a public park in Burlington. Though his memoir describes the 1987 trip as “strange,” Sanders does not elaborate. Bouricius, who joined the delegation along with several other city residents, describes an enjoyable tour that featured vodka toasts with the mayor of Yaroslavl and stops in St. Petersburg and Lenin’s tomb in Moscow.”
        Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/the-foreign-minister-of-burlington-vt-120839#ixzz3od0HO7yc

  2. If HRC is going to be the nominee then it will do her good to have intra-party challenges to prepare her to go up against the GOP nominee (probably “Jeb!”). What a weird election this will make. I understand that the two families are actually close.

  3. *snicker* From the interview:

    Sanders: Yes. We got married in 1988. The day after we got married, we marched in a Memorial Day Parade, and then we took off in a plane to start the sister city project with Yaroslovl with 10 other people on my honeymoon.

    They honeymooned in the Soviet Union. Her own words. Nice try, News Corpse.

      • OMG. Are you that dumb or just dishonest? The actual quote from the Bloomberg article you linked is….

        “The day after their wedding, they marched in a parade, then hopped a plane to Russia—a trip to a ‘sister city’ they had helped set up. ‘Yaroslovl with 10 other people on my honeymoon,’ Jane once joked.”

        And you “guess it wasn’t a joke?” Maybe you just can’t read.

        • Here is the whole paragraph:

          In the 1980s, Jane helped start a newspaper, and a teen center, after school programs and a day care. She also launched a festival called Kid’s Day. The couple married toward the end of the decade. The day after their wedding, they marched in a parade, then hopped a plane to Russia—a trip to a ‘sister city’ they had helped set up. “Yaroslovl with 10 other people on my honeymoon,” Jane once joked.

          The trip to Russia is in the paragraph as a fact – the quotation at the end that includes the 10 other people is noted as the joke. So Did she or did they not jump on a plane to Russia? Or is the whole thing a joke – doesn’t appear to be. The way it’s written absolutely doesn’t rule out the trip to Russia as anything other than a fact. I think you’re reading it the way you want to read it – but clearly this article suggests they did go to Russia the day after their wedding and after some parade. I don’t see the quoted statement suggesting the entire paragraph is some kind of farce.

          • You’re delusional. Of course the trip to Russia was a fact. The part about the honeymoon “with 10 other people” was obviously a joke, as stated in the article.

            This is why I don’t usually respond to your comments. It’s like talking to a child who throws a tantrum and can only see his own distorted world.

            I’ll just leave this for my readers to decide.

            • So you admit you’re wrong – they DID honeymoon in the soviet union. The rest of your post is just an attempt to save face. And in this case Fox news wasn’t the lying douchebag. Puts your whole article in question – doesn’t it?

            • Admit I’m wrong??? Are you on drugs?

              I never said that they didn’t go to their sister city in Russia. The rest of your post is evidence that you have brain damage.

            • Mark NC,

              Do not bother with “steve in york”. He clearly missed the ENTIRE point of your article, and/or probably did not bother to read it.

    • Hey Chuck – your initial comment was proven – see below – excellent – Mark is having trouble accepting his error.

      • Like I said above, you must be on drugs. And I will not allow you to further hijack this article.

        • From my experience right wingers have great difficulty in recognizing sarcasm or jokes based on irony.

          How else do you think Ben “Friend of Hamas” Shapiro got this title anyway?

          In this case, ignoring the obvious gives them a chance to smear someone they hate, so all the more reason to do just that.

          Double for cretins like steve who has had a big chip on his shoulder regarding you and your site for years.

          Their remarks are an accurate representation of just what needs to be dealt with when engaging the right.

    • Chuck Schuyler,

      Bernie Sanders and his wife going somewhere in the Soviet Union TO WORK ON A PROJECT TOGETHER (with 10 other people) is NOT the same EXACT thing as “honeymooning” in the Soviet Union.

      Were they EXCLUSIVELY “honeymooning” in the Soviet Union (with 10 other people)? Or were they there working on something and basically had to use their time there to “honeymoon” (with 10 other people?)

  4. Fox Fascist Propaganda network is always looking for new ways to victimize the dimwitted right wing cult

    • Masters of innuendo and insidious implication. But hey, they’re trying to push the policy platform and carry the water for a party that most people find repugnant, so what else do they have?

  5. I am still trying to understand why anyone would even care Where Bernie spent his honeymoon. It is obvious to me that they visited a city where they were starting a sister city project. It’s ridiculous to get “outraged” over this. The right is nuts!

    • Steven Burkhardt – you’re absolutely right in your question – the argument I’m making above isn’t about that it’s about the fact that the article accuses Fox News of LYING about them honeymooning in the Soviet Union – when another source as provided, a more respected source, confirms that is a fact. Whether anyone should care or not is another issue all together and could be the point Mark wants people to see. So yes you are right to question why people should care where people vacation, but there is still a verifiable fact that has been misrepresented here that the author refuses to correct. For once – Fox News didn’t actually lie or mislead they are guilty of pushing a story that is meant to suggest something that may paint a picture of Bernie Sanders that could be damaging to many Americans – right or wrong.

      • steve in york

        Bernie Sanders and his wife going somewhere in the Soviet Union TO WORK ON A PROJECT TOGETHER is NOT the same EXACT thing as “honeymooning” in the Soviet Union.

        Were they EXCLUSIVELY “honeymooning” in the Soviet Union? Or were they there working on something and basically had to use their time there to “honeymoon?”

      • With 10 other people, I might add

        • tman, you’re right that Steve didn’t get it, and I appreciate your support, but I’m trying to cut off this troll’s hijacking of the thread, so let’s not feed the trolls.

          I’m glad you got it though. 🙂 Thanks again.

  6. Not that I believe Fox, but rhe journalism here is just as shitty. If he didn’t why don’t you offer proof? Oh that’s right, because this site has become the left wing version of Fox. Shameful

    • “If he didn’t why don’t you offer proof?”

      Okay, 2 things about your question

      #1. The burden of proof is on the person making the allegation.

      #2. The reason why this allegation of a “honeymoon in the Soviet Union” can be safely considered debunked is because they clearly misinterpreted the SOURCE for that claim. Sanders and his wife clearly DID NOT go out to the Soviet Union for any “honeymooning.” Yes, it all basically happened a day or 2 after their wedding, but they were clearly NOT on a “honeymoon in the Soviet Union.”

      • Per my response to you below – #2 in your comment is also a totally biased interpretation of the Bloomberg provided information – your interpretation is no more or less valid than mine or the Fox news interpretation. Neither you, Mark, Fox News or I can 100% say which is correct. So I guess it really is up to the reader to decide. There is NO debunking either way – accept your bias – we all need to see this for what it is.

        • So I guess it really is up to the reader to decide.

          I am one of “the readers.” And I have decided (rightfully so) that Mark’s article actually gives the full context of everything Bernie Sanders and wife were doing at the time, which debunks the Fox narrative of Sanders and his wife going to the Soviet Union EXCLUSIVELY for a vacation and for no other purposes than a vacation.

          I have decided that Fox News was clearly trying to portray Sanders and his wife as Soviet sympathizers who couldn’t wait to get to the USSR to take a vacation.

          You sound like Obi-Wan Kenobi saying “What I told you was true, from a certain point of view” when in reality, HE LIED! Just like Fox. Even if Fox was technically correct that they went there days after being married, they are LYING because of what they are trying to portray about Bernie Sanders. Leaving out context can be lying. “Lying by omission” I think is what it’s called.

          You clearly missed the point of Mark’s article here. I’m done feeding trolls.

  7. If Bernie vacations on the rings of Saturn, it’s fine by me. What’s really important is that FoxNewz viewers come away with a clear “understanding” that Democratic Socialism is exactly the same as Totalitarian Communism. Because “understanding” that foxfact is central to the mission of making & keeping Uh’merican conservatives the stupidest, most ignorant & dishonest people in the civilized world. We may have lost our manufacturing base, but our media still cranks out weapons-grade stoopidity on a mass industrial level. U S A – fuk-yeah!!!

    • That’s a very good point you made, about Communism vs Democratic Socialism. Important difference for people to know. And very important for us to explain to the general American public!

  8. One who has a brain cannot assume that Bernie Sanders and his wife going somewhere in the Soviet Union TO WORK ON A PROJECT TOGETHER is the same EXACT thing as “honeymooning” in the Soviet Union.

    Were they EXCLUSIVELY “honeymooning” in the Soviet Union? Or were they there working on something and basically had to use their time there to “honeymoon?”

    • Look – the way I see it – Fox News AND Newscorpse are reaching for conclusions. Based on the article i provided from Bloomberg and the information Mark provided in his article – it can easily be stated that Fox News was reaching for a conclusion that was more about painting a negative picture of Bernie Sanders that is related to their propaganda pushing for the GOP AND Mark was reaching a conclusion that was meant to blunt that characterization because he is biased in the opposite direction. The FACT is they did go to Russia (ie the Soviet Union) immediately after they were married – it can EASILY be surmised it was a honeymoon based solely on the information provided in other sources. Two EQUALLY BIASED views of the same event that I would agree probably doesn’t need to be a campaign issue but will by in some quarters. Ultimately though – the graphic included in this article as well as the title are at best biased and at worst completely misleading and wrong – you pick.

      • The FACT is they did go to Russia (ie the Soviet Union) immediately after they were married – it can EASILY be surmised it was a honeymoon based solely on the information provided in other sources.

        It was “EASILY surmised” because the Fox “report” only used part of a quote, without explaining the ENTIRE context and the ENTIRE purpose of the Sanders’ trip to the Soviet Union, in order to paint a picture of the Sanders’ being Soviet sympathizers and communists.

        Two EQUALLY BIASED views of the same event

        “Biased” doesn’t necessarily mean wrong, or right. I don’t think the author is trying to hide his bias here. And neither do I. But Fox was wrong for not including the entire context of what Sanders and his newlywed wife were doing (with 10 other people). Perhaps if they did, it would have blown Fox’s entire narrative about the Sanders taking a honeymoon vacation in the Soviet Union, for other reason than to just take a vacation there, because the Sanders are communists and Soviet sympathizers.

        What the author did here at newscorpse was provide us with THE ENTIRE CONTEXT of everything that Sanders and his wife (with 10 other people) were doing, which, in my opinion, blows the entire Fox narrative.

        • Ok, I’ll concede bias doesn’t necessarily mean wrong – but it does impact intent and meaning of the message/article. My summary is exactly right – this is 2 biased views of the same event – and both can’t be right. But the information is the same – so my suggestion of 2 biased interpretations is beyond debate and my contention is exactly right. The Fox News intent is as I stated and I’m sure you would agree with it….Marks intent is also as i stated and I’m sure you won’t agree with that but it’s completely reasonable. In no way can you or anyone else prove which INTERPRETATION of the presented information is correct without more information. I can see why you and Mark feel it’s as you state but the Fox News “reach” for a conclusion is still equally possible. Again – more information would be needed to confirm one way or another which interpretation is correct. Although I’m not an unbiased reader myself (which no one else here would ever admit), ultimately, I have very little interest in which interpretation is correct – Bernie Sanders won’t be the democratic nominee so who really cares about his vacation plans of the past. Mark, on the other hand, has every interest in his interpretation being correct since it’s his article and he has so much wrapped up in this blog of his – including his own credibility.

  9. Bernie Sanders won’t be the democratic nominee

    They said the exact same thing about Barack Obama. So we’ll see….

  10. I don’t have a problem with political memes of any flavor. But at least let’s start out by getting our facts straight.
    Sanders honeymooned in the USSR. Sanders married his current wife, Jane, in May of 1988 and the next day left for their “romantic honeymoon” to Yaroslavl, in the then-Soviet Union. The trip was an official delegation from Burlington to cement the two cities’ sister-city relationship. “Trust me. It was a very strange honeymoon,” Sanders wrote.

    Sanders made further globe-trotting expeditions to socialist countries. He visited Cuba, scoring a meeting with Havana’s mayor.

    In 1985 he attended the celebrations marking the sixth anniversary of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. “In a letter addressed to the people of Nicaragua, penned in conjunction with that trip, Sanders denounced the activities of the Reagan administration, which he said was under the influence of large corporations,” the Guardian notes. “In the long run, I am certain that you will win,” Sanders wrote, “and that your heroic revolution against the Somoza dictatorship will be maintained and strengthened.” (The Sandinistas were ousted by Nicaragua’s voters in 1990).

    No one believes he will beat Hillary for the Democratic nomination, but here’s hoping his growing strength encourages reporters to quiz him about his Soviet honeymoon and other loony-Left trips to countries that were sworn enemies of the U.S.

    • Not surprising – but what was the source of the quote from Bernie Sanders about his honeymoon?

    • Here you are , Mark NC — a non-troll post that you are free to refute.

      …and good luck to you.

  11. How come Sanders own book says he honeymooned in Russia?

    • If you read the book you obviously didn’t understand it. He said it ironically. He was there with his new wife following the wedding with ten other people on a diplomatic mission.

  12. I’m not sure why he would write it in his book if it never happened, even calling it a “very strange honeymoon”.

  13. This was my first view of this site and I came away with a sense that it’s operated by a group of teenagers, laying around their Mommies basement as they take a break from playing an online fantasy game.

    What a group of blithering idiots.

    • Thanks for that astute, substantive, and oh-so-adult observation, Ronnie.

  14. I’m curious…Has Senator Sanders corroborated News Corpse/Mark NC’s version of events?

    And if it does not matter, why argue so vociferously that he didn’t?

    And if all indications are that Sanders and his wife considered it a honeymoon, why disagree? “Honeymoon” means different things to different people after all.

  15. Get real, even MSNBC labels it a honeymoon, quoting Sanders’ own book.
    http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-25-best-things-we-learned-bernie-sanders-book

    “Sanders honeymooned in the USSR. Sanders married his current wife, Jane, in May of 1988 and the next day left for their “romantic honeymoon” to Yaroslavl, in the then-Soviet Union. The trip was an official delegation from Burlington to cement the two cities’ sister-city relationship. “Trust me. It was a very strange honeymoon,” Sanders writes.”

    And in 1988 Russia was still part of the USSR.

  16. The issue isn’t whether or not Sanders and his wife “honey-mooned in the USSR”. Whether they call it their “honeymoon” ironically or not, I don’t think it’s unfair to say that that it was their honey moon, even though it wasn’t meant to be an actual honeymoon.

    The issue here is that Fox is DELIBERATELY leaving out the CONTEXT of their so-called “honeymoon”. They are “smearing by omission”.

    It is extremely important that the context of their “honeymoon” be mentioned. Otherwise, it would be appear that they went OUT OF THEIR WAY to take a vacation in the USSR, and nothing else.

    I repeat: the LACK OF CONTEXT is the smear/lie! And to deny it and stick up for Fox here is to be obtuse.

  17. 19. Sanders honeymooned in the USSR. Sanders married his current wife, Jane, in May of 1988 and the next day left for their “romantic honeymoon” to Yaroslavl, in the then-Soviet Union. The trip was an official delegation from Burlington to cement the two cities’ sister-city relationship. “Trust me. It was a very strange honeymoon,” SANDERS WRITES.

    http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-25-best-things-we-learned-bernie-sanders-book

  18. Bernie Sanders wrote about this in his own book, you lying liberal hack.

    • And apparently you can’t read, you ignorant, illiterate, teabagging, right-wing ass.

  19. IN COMRADE BERNARD’S OWN WORDS IN HIS POLITICAL MEMOIR REGARDING HIS HONEYMOON IN THE SOVIET UNION: “Trust me, it was a very strange honeymoon.” THIS IS JOURNALISM??? Mark NC you and your libtarded goons are pathetic!!! Must be nice working where no accountability is required. But what else should I expect from a libtard…how pathetic.

    • Who typed that comment for you? Because it’s clear that you can’t read. The quote from the book was obviously meant in humor (as stated here many times), and if you think that a honeymoon is a trip with diplomatic engagements, and ten other people, you’re deranged.

      Plus, it’s always a good indicator that you’re dealing with an idiot when they say “libtard.” How pathetic.

  20. Yes he did honeymoon in the Soviet Union. This was 1988, when Gorbachev was in power and relationships between the two nations was thawing. This was a diplomatic mission that happened to coincide with his wedding date. For that, I can’t fault Bernie Sanders.
    I do fault him for supporting and endorsing communism and communist dictators throughout his life, and using the same populist propaganda and class-warfare techniques to garner support and create divides in this country.
    He is also terrible at math. His giveaways to his self-centered constituents who feel entitled to other people’s life savings would run 18 trillion dollars, 1.4 trillion more than the entire US GNP.

Comments are closed.