This week’s Liberal Media Scream features the latest media spin on the impact of Democratic firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
AOC, as she is known in media circles, has made a substantial impact already and been ready to strike back when attacked.
In this case, a journalist featured on Sunday’s CNN “Reliable Sources” said that the New York lawmaker’s words are threatening to whites and conservatives.
[Also read: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez alleges sexism, racism in media coverage of her ‘Late Show’ appearance]
Laura Bassett, the Huffington Post’s senior culture and politics reporter until she was laid off last week, said that Ocasio-Cortez “is threatening white conservative men’s power and they’re terrified of her.” She also declared that “they’re trying to take her down. They’re using all the tricks in the patriarchy.”
From the Jan. 27 “Reliable Sources” on CNN, picking up after host Brian Stelter prompted her with this leading question: “What do you think is fueling the constant attacks on Fox against this freshman congresswoman?”
LAURA BASSETT: Look, she’s got a target on her back because she ticks every box that makes conservative men uncomfortable: She’s a woman, she’s Latina, she’s young, she’s working class, she’s a millennial, she’s a Democratic socialist. Everything that makes people uncomfortable. And she’s a star, she’s a rising Democratic star. She’s got a lot of power. People are really responding to her on social media, as Charlotte [Alter of Time magazine] said, in the same way that people responded to Trump kind of emotionally a couple of years ago. So, I think, in some ways, she’s sort of the ideal anti-Trump and she is threatening white conservative men’s power and they’re terrified of her.
STELTER: And thus she’s a feature on Fox. That’s what you’re saying?
BASSETT: Absolutely. They’re trying to take her down. They’re using all the tricks in the patriarchy.
Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains our weekly pick: “How ridiculous. After months of major media outlets celebrating and promoting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the greatest gift to America since Barack Obama, CNN and Bassett impugn the motives of a rare media outlet willing to critique her left wing policy pronouncements. It isn’t Fox News that’s terrified of AOC’s ideas, it’s Bassett and Stelter who are afraid her ideas won’t hold up to scrutiny.”
Rating: Four out of five screams.
