While all but ignoring the liberal media’s massive screw-up with the smearing of the Covington Kids, CNN media reporter and “Reliable Sources” host Brian Stelter took time out of the show to tout how Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez utilized social media to spread her falsehoods and socialist propaganda. And, of course, the all-female liberal panel was happy to oblige by singing her praises and suggesting that fact-checks against her were somehow sexist.
Stelter first went to former Huffington Post reporter Laura Bassett, who was fired last week by the online outlet. Citing Bassett’s experience with “Conservative media reactions to what [AOC]’s doing,” Stelter wondered, “What do you think is fueling the constant attacks on Fox against this freshman Congresswoman?”
Of course, the cause wasn’t her loose association with the facts or economics, her childish antics, nor her support for an ideology that had brought suffering to millions of people around the globe, the cause was all the bigotry from the old white men:
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 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,” Bassett cheered. And despite the fact numerous Fox News programs were hosted by women, Bassett suggested the outlet was “trying to take her down. They're using all the tricks in the patriarchy.”
Stelter even showed off a tweet AOC fired off at his favorite hate object: Sean Hannity.
Next up was Charlotte Alter, a reporter for Time magazine. After being questioned by Stelter about AOC pushing back on fact-checkers, Alter seemed to suggest that the reason the Congresswoman was being fact-checked because of sexism. “I mean, look – Look! I don't see any male members of Congress who are being fact-checked with the intensity and specificity and frequency that she is.”
But back in reality, President Trump had become arguably the most fact-checked politician in American history. So much so that they even fact-checked statements that were obviously said in jest or were figures of speech. The Washinton Post alone has fact-checked Trump almost 8,200 times in just two years! That’s not to mention that the fact-checkers preferred to target Republicans, while letting the liberals slip by.
Building off of the fact-checking topic, Jess McIntosh, a former Hillary Clinton campaign official, argued it was okay to go after fact-checkers “when it goes beyond the yes or no of you have said a fact” and when fact-checking something “subjective.” That would wipe out a lot of the liberal media’s fact-checks of Trump.
“I don't think that equates at all to ad-hominem attack on journalism. But for someone who has as much of a media platform as she does, I think it's incredibly important that she's out there trying to shape it herself. And so far, I think she's crushing it,” McIntosh added.
Of course, there was no mention from Stelter of AOC’s ‘factually inaccurate but morally right’ fact-checking standard.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Reliable Sources
January 27, 2019
11:22:40 a.m. Eastern(…)
BRIAN STELTER: You mentioned AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Let’s talk about what she’s saying on Twitter, how she’s using Twitter, Laura. You wrote about Conservative media reactions to what she’s doing. 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 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.
STELTER: And yet, she always replies. Let’s put up a tweet replying to Sean Hannity. She was proud about a comment Hannity made attacking her the other day. Is she trying to have it both ways, Charlotte, by one day, you know, she's criticizing the Washington Post fact-checker, the next day she's talking about how important journalism is to society. Is there something Trumpian at all about her journalism critiques?
CHARLOTTE ALTER: Well, I think it's really important to make a distinction here. Donald Trump is calling journalists the enemy of the people and AOC is not doing any of that. I think that she is in a unique position where she is getting a tremendous amount of scrutiny for a freshman congresswoman. And I think she is pushing back on some of the intense scrutiny.
I mean, look – Look! I don't see any male members of Congress who are being fact checked with the intensity and specificity and frequency that she is. I think that she deserves to be fact-checked. She is a member of Congress. Her statements are part of the public record and, you know, fact-checkers need to be doing their jobs in checking what she is saying. But I think she's walking this line by sort of pointing out some of the biases that we do have in the media and also supporting the media as an institution and as an industry.
STELTER: Jess, last word to you.
JESS MCINTOSH: Fact-checkers have a really specific role. And I think it's okay to critique that when it goes beyond the yes or no of you have said a fact. When they fact-check a more subjective claim like a living wage is necessary, using a 14-year-old paper called “Walmart a progressive success story”, I think it's okay for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to say, “hey, maybe that's not the source I would go for when I am critiquing Walmart”. I don't think that equates at all to ad-hominem attack on journalism. But for someone who has as much of a media platform as she does, I think it's incredibly important that she's out there trying to shape it herself. And so far, I think she's crushing it.
(…)
