NYT editorial board member compares Ocasio-Cortez media posture to Trump, de Blasio
A member of The New York Times editorial board on Monday night voiced concerns about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) treatment of the media while comparing it to President Trump and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D).
Ocasio-Cortez has received ample media attention since being sworn into office last month, appearing on major platforms such as CBS’s “60 Minutes” in addition to multiple interviews on MSNBC’s top-rated program, “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
But the 29-year-old self-described democratic socialist also has at times been critical of the media, including most recently of the New York Post after the paper questioned if the freshman congresswoman still lived in the district she represents in the Bronx.{mosads}
The Post said in its report that it emailed Ocasio-Cortez’s spokesman four times without receiving a response and the spokesman declined to comment when reached by phone. Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter by stating she still lives in the district and referenced an Instagram video she posted from the apartment in question.
New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay appeared on MSNBC on Monday night to urge Ocasio-Cortez to address the claims “appropriately to members of the press” by not ignoring press inquiries.
“My actual point of concern is that the congresswoman has yet to address these claims appropriately to members of the press,” Gay said on MSNBC’s “The Beat,” hosted by Ari Melber. “There is traditionally a very important relationship between members of the media, including the [New York] Post, and elected officials. That’s something that they could have dealt with privately, and she could have at least responded to a press inquiry.”
“Remember that the congresswoman actually ran her [primary] campaign in part based on the idea that former Congressman Joe Crowley didn’t really live in his district in all practicality and really hadn’t spent enough time there, so this is a relevant question,” Gay added later. “Yes, the Post is conservative and they may not always be fair to her, but it’s a fair question, and it’s one I believe that she should respond to in-kind and not just ignore press inquiries.”
“Does that remind you of someone?” Melber asked.
“It reminds me of two people. One would be Donald Trump, and the other would be Mayor Bill de Blasio,” Gay replied.
Trump has often decried media coverage of him and his administration as “fake news” and has referred to the press as “the enemy of the people” on multiple occasions.
De Blasio has also gone after the New York press several times in the past, including The New York Times, New York Daily News and New York Post.
“If you see a steady decline in democracy, we’re going to have to vividly defend a lot of media we don’t agree with. But I don’t want to give them a free pass on what they have done to all of us,” de Blasio told the Guardian last year.
“If you could remove News Corp from the last 25 years of American history, we would be in an entirely different place,” the mayor added. “We would be a more unified country. We would not be suffering a lot of the negativity and divisiveness we’re going through right now. I can’t ignore that.”
News Corp owns The Wall Street Journal, Fox News and the New York Post.
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