Ocasio-Cortez hits CBS for not having black reporter, producer on 2020 election team
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who has garnered plenty of media coverage recently, hasn’t been afraid to tell news outlets how she feels – especially those who have been critical of her.
Saturday was no different as she expressed her dissatisfaction with CBS News’ 2020 election coverage plans, calling out the network for not including an African-American journalist on their 2020 Election Team.
Ben F. Mitchell, a CBS News associate producer, tweeted, “It's Official: The @CBSNews 2020 Election Team has assembled!” on Friday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The tweet included a graphic with pictures and names of eight 2020 campaign reporters as well as four campaign associate producers, including Mitchell.
Late Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez retweeted the producer and called out his employer for not including an African-American in the group.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“This [administration] 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,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Unacceptable in 2019. Try again.”
Ocasio-Cortez called President Donald Trump a racist last Sunday on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” program.
CBS News’ public relations department tweeted a press release minutes after Mitchell’s Tweet announcing the group.
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“The News Division will increase political reporting across-the-board by expanding its political embed unit,” the press release said.
In separate responses to Ocasio-Cortez, National Journal Politics Editor Josh Kraushaar compared her to President Trump by calling her a "media scold" and noted that the group "looked racially diverse (at least based on last names), with the exception of lacking an African-American. If there aren’t strict racial quotas for every batch of hires, does it mean a company is racist?”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rep. Ocasio-Cortez did not take kindly to Kraushaar's response, joking that she should change her Twitter profile name to "Alexandria ‘looked racially diverse (at least based on last names)’ Ocasio-Cortez"
“Do you understand how fundamental the black experience is to American politics? And to American history?” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “One race isn’t substitutable for another. It doesn’t work like that.”
She added, “It’s not about “quotas.” It’s about understanding the country you’re living in.”
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The freshman congresswoman returned to her exchange with Kraushaar on Sunday, claiming that his comparison of her to Trump was a "false equivalence" by "diminishing Trump‘s 'enemy of the people' talk as 'scolding' & describing my call to hire a black journalist as the same thing."
"I never called anyone racist, just inadequate," she added. "Also never called for strict quotas, just having representation of one of the most fundamental voting blocs in the American electorate."