It never fails. You can almost set your watch to it.
If a Democrat does or says something incredibly, perhaps irredeemably, stupid or vicious, you can bet good money major newsrooms will ignore it for as long as it takes for their reporters to make the story about the supposed conservative overreaction. To be clear, the problem with the “Republicans pounce” trope isn’t merely that newsrooms report on the conservative reaction. Reaction articles are fine! The issue is that newsrooms often won’t touch a story that reflect poorly on Democrats at all until it can be made into something broader about how Republicans and conservatives are supposedly exploiting the moment.
Call it the “Republicans pounce” or “Republicans seize” trope.
This weekend, for example, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., lied about the rollout of her preposterous “Green New Deal,” which included the circulation of numerous “frequently asked questions” sheets.
The FAQs pages from her office claimed, among other things, that the “GND” aims to lower fossil fuel emissions to “net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast.” The FAQs also boasted that the House resolution would provide “economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work.” Neither cow farts nor “unwilling to work” are included in the actual resolution co-sponsored by more than 100 Democratic lawmakers.
The FAQs were rightly ridiculed and mocked by critics, and even supporters, of Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal. But rather than own up to authoring the ludicrous documents, the congresswoman and her team initially denied all involvement, alleging instead a vast right-wing disinformation campaign.
Ocasio-Cortez later backed away from pinning the FAQs on nefarious interlopers, and her team has mostly admitted to writing the language included in the accompanying materials to the “GND.” But they’re still pushing the line that the GOP and its supporters also distributed “doctored” versions of documents her staff made publicly available. The “doctored” defense, which isn’t even the first time that Ocasio-Cortez has gone down this road, is meant to confuse and obscure the truth that she is responsible personally for saying or doing something abjectly ignorant.
But never fear, congresswoman! The press is here to run interference on your behalf.
Following Ocasio-Cortez’s obvious attempt to mislead the public this weekend, the New York Times published a headline that reads, “Ocasio-Cortez Team Flubs a Green New Deal Summary, and Republicans Pounce.”
The article actually reads:
This is a classic iteration of the “Republicans seize” cliche, not just because it makes the GOP the focus of Ocasio-Cortez’s botched rollout but because “Republicans seizing” is the first, and presumably last, time the newspaper has made any mention of the congresswoman’s bungling and dishonesty. The only other in-depth reporting the Times has on Ocasio-Cortez introducing the “GND” is an article titled, “Liberal Democrats Formally Call for a ‘Green New Deal,’ Giving Substance to a Rallying Cry.”
It’s a bad joke at this point. If a story reflects poorly on Democrats, chances are you won’t hear about. Not until Republicans “pounce,” that is.
