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<p>Thousands of people gather at the Paris casino in Las Vegas for the Nevada State Democratic Convention on Saturday, May 14, 2016. They are picking delegates to send to the national convention in July. (AP Photo/Michelle Rindels)</p>

Thousands of people gather at the Paris casino in Las Vegas for the Nevada State Democratic Convention on Saturday, May 14, 2016. They are picking delegates to send to the national convention in July. (AP Photo/Michelle Rindels)

By now, most of you have probably heard about what happened at Nevada’s state Democratic caucus on May 14. Violence, chair throwing, verbal harassment, a California senator fearing for her life: At least, this is what happened according to many Democratic officials and major media.

All you need to do is turn to the evidence: not word of mouth, but the dozens of live stream videos from people who attended the caucus. You’ll find no evidence of violence, whatsoever. No arrests were made at the caucus: no charges of violence filed. As for the “chair throwing,” there’s evidence of one man picking up a chair but, then, putting it back down. If anything, he was closer to throwing out his back by picking up the chair so quickly.

In regard to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who told CNN on Wednesday, “I feared for my safety,” her recounting of the event and her feelings seem to contradict the video evidence of her sarcastically blowing kisses to likely Bernie Sanders supporters as she walked off stage with her police escort. But rather than follow up with Boxer for this disparity, CNN instead used her as a talking point to further perpetuate the notion that Sanders supporters got violent enough to make a senator “fear for her life.”

Now, in turning to the evidence, you will without a doubt see a debacle of shouting and disdain. But rather than assume on an inherently violent nature of an entire group of people, who support a candidate with a strong advocacy for non-violent change and condemnation of “any and all forms of violence, including personal harassment of individuals,” we should instead look to why Nevada erupted the way it did.

As The Las Vegas Sun reported, Sanders and Hillary Clinton supporters were divided over whether to adopt a temporary set of convention rules as permanent.

There was also the issue of why 58 district-level Sanders delegates were denied entry to the state caucus, while only eight Clinton delegates were denied. State party officials claimed these delegates were denied because either their records could not be found or they were not registered Democrats by May 1.

Despite these issues, Roberta Lange, the head of the caucus, and the state party largely ignored the official motions filed by Sanders supporters and for the concerns that made it to a voice vote (“aye” or “nay”). Lange seemed to rush the voting and give it to Clinton’s side, as evidenced in the video recordings.

Now, we at the Alligator aren’t asking you to support one candidate or the other, and we aren’t telling you how to feel about the caucus. What we do want you to think about is how major news outlets have mishandled this situation.

Instead of obscuring what really happened, the media should be investigating the real issues. Were all of Sanders’ delegates really unregistered, given the propensity of voter purging registration this election cycle? Did Lange and the state party inappropriately handle the voice votes? Was the integrity of the caucus process maintained?

If this election cycle has taught us anything, it’s that much of our big-name media has devolved to pure punditry. Furthermore, while there is an army of good journalists out there doing tremendous work, the media machine that dominates our TV and social media is doing us a disservice. The coverage of Nevada is only a sound example of a festering problem.

Thousands of people gather at the Paris casino in Las Vegas for the Nevada State Democratic Convention on Saturday, May 14, 2016. They are picking delegates to send to the national convention in July. (AP Photo/Michelle Rindels)

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