The freshman representative from New York's 14th congressional district does not appear to be heeding Whoopi Goldberg's advice to get to know her Washington surroundings before she starts "pooping on people." Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D), who was sworn in just a couple weeks ago, has already picked fights with several lawmakers, including several in her own party. For example, she protested outside Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office demanding she get more progressive on climate change. She then sparred with former Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) over the future of the Democratic Party.
Now, she's picking fights with news networks. On Saturday, she publicly criticized CBS News for its apparent lack of diversity.
This WH admin has made having a functional understanding of race in America one of the most important core competencies for a political journalist to have, yet @CBSNews hasn’t assigned a *single* black journalist to cover the 2020 election.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 13, 2019
Unacceptable in 2019. Try again. https://t.co/h7tmiBr9Fi
Author Roxane Gay agreed it was a "disgrace" that CBS's 2020 staff had no African-American voices. Yet, other Twitter users defended CBS and suggested they were hiring not based on race, but simply who was best suited for the job.
Members of the media also pushed back at Ocasio-Cortez's narrative, including National Journal's Josh Kraushaar, who said she was no better than President Trump with her "media scold."
For what it’s worth, the mix of 7 embedded campaign reporters looked racially diverse (at least based on last names), with the exception of lacking an African-American.
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) January 13, 2019
If there aren’t strict racial quotas for every batch of hires, does it mean a company is racist? https://t.co/T05hTagRby
Yeah, +1. Seems a stretch to insist on matching census demographic proportions on a team of 7 people. They have people of Middle Eastern, East Asian, and Latin American descent—you could do a lot worse (and most prestige media orgs do). @AOC coulda picked a better target here. https://t.co/tAfKQdwp53
— Dan Rosenheck (@DanRosenheck) January 13, 2019
Ocasio-Cortez got into a back and forth with Kraushaar, asking him, "Do you understand how fundamental the black experience is to American politics? And to American history? One race isn’t substitutable for another. It doesn’t work like that. It’s not about 'quotas.' It’s about understanding the country you’re living in."
After her spar with the media, Ocasio-Cortez moved on to shaming her colleagues who she suggested fundraise more than they do legislate.
This week I learned some members spend as little as 5 hours per WEEK in their office bc their fundraising commitments are so high.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 13, 2019
It’s not them, it’s our broken system of campaign finance.
Bc I rely on recurring small dollar donors (https://t.co/OJ64KclZ0m !), I can do my job. https://t.co/qWwQxgh9vK
It may be time to repost Goldberg's words of wisdom for Ocasio-Cortez.
“You just got there, and I know you have lots of good ideas,” Goldberg told the freshman. “But I would encourage you to sit still for a minute and learn the job. Because there are people in that party who have been working their tales off for that country and you can learn some stuff from them.”