The DOGE chainsaw won’t officially rumble to life for another 34 days, but one of its potential targets insists on calling attention to itself. The Public Broadcasting System (PBS), although taxpayer-funded, insists on pretending it is MSNBC as it covers House Democrat committee chair races.
Watch as PBS’s Geoff Bennett and Lisa Desjarlais mourn the fact that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) lost her race for House Oversight Committee Ranking Member to Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA):
PBS NEWSHOUR
12/17/24
7:23 PM
GEOFF BENNETT: I want to ask you about some internal Democratic Party politics. Namely, that New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez today lost her bid to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. And this is at a time when Democrats- there’s an appetite for fresh faces, especially in Congress leading some of these committees. Bring us up to speed.
LISA DESJARDINS: That was a big part of her pitch. She is now going to be a four- a fourth-term congresswoman, she’s not new to The Hill anymore. Ocasio-Cortez has talked about that race. First of all, she pitched that new generation. She said, “I am one of the top fundraisers. Seniority is not- should not just be the way that people gain traction here. It should be the people who are strongest and able to voice things for the working class.” But she lost to Gerry Connolly, a Virginia congressman who among other things, has important ties to Washington, D.C., which is part of the Oversight Committee’s job.
You can identify the pro-AOC angle in this reporting by the fact that it didn’t mention Gerry Connolly’s margin of victory over AOC. Per Axios:
Driving the news: Connolly defeated Ocasio-Cortez 131-84, lawmakers told Axios.
- He had the backing of several veteran lawmakers, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
- The role came open after current Oversight ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) opted to run for the top Democratic spot on the Judiciary Committee.
This wasn’t just a victory by Connolly, it was an embarrassing 61-39 annihilation of AOC within her own caucus. Furthermore, it was the messy end of a proxy war between AOC and a recently hip-replaced Nancy Pelosi, gone from the Speakership but still calling shots within the Dem conference from her hospital suite at Landstuhl.
Somehow, this didn’t make it into PBS’s réportage. Instead we get a gushy brief within a D.C. wrap that is stripped of anything resembling news other than the progressive heroine was thwarted by the patriarchal Establishment despite her fundraising prowess and social media presence.
This kind of partisan reporting is, unfortunately, predictable. And, at least for the time being, funded by the American taxpayer. Hopefully, not for long.
