Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls out CBS for not having Black Journalists on their presidential coverage
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Newly minted Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has not been shy about speaking her mind and making waves since taking office.
On Saturday night, CBS News producer Ben Mitchell tweeted out a picture of the team they will be using to cover the 2020 Presidential campaign. While there were Asian, Arab-American, and Latino reporters, conspicuously missing from the photo were any Black reporters.
This drew the ire of Black Journalists and columnists everywhere, including Jelani Cobb who blistered the network for the snub on Twitter:
So… what you’re saying is that in a campaign in which voter suppression and racial attitudes are expected to play a huge role you will have zero black journalists covering it? https://t.co/6Sh2LQl2Xs
— jelani cobb (@jelani9) January 13, 2019
“So what you’re saying is that in a campaign in which voter suppression and racial attitudes are expected to play a huge role you will have zero black journalists covering it,” Cobb said. His reaction spurred numerous responses from black journalists around the country. Ocasio-Cortez chimed in with her support, openly calling out CBS and refusing to back down.
This WH admin 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.
Unacceptable in 2019. Try again. https://t.co/h7tmiBr9Fi
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 13, 2019
“This WH admin has made having a functional understanding of race in America one of the most important core competencies for a political journalist to have, yet [CBS News] hasn’t assigned a *single* black journalist to cover the 2020 election,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Unacceptable in 2019. Try again”
When Josh Kraushaar, an editor with the Conservative website the National Journal attempted to chastise Ocasio-Cortez and compare her to Donald Trump, she was having none of it.
Another thing AOC has in common with Trump: media scold. https://t.co/Xj9AAccWMP
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) January 13, 2019
Or: maybe having powerful editorial positions awash in people from one race, class, or gender isn’t a good idea; since we get 1000% more takes on “brown lady says a curse word” than an actual white supremacist in Congress.
If you won’t look the mirror, people will do it for you. https://t.co/P0PVfsTE4t
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 13, 2019
“Maybe having powerful editorial positions awash in people from one race, class, or gender isn’t a good idea,” she said in another tweet. “Since we get 1000% more takes on ‘brown lady says a curse word’ than an actual white supremacist in Congress.”
Even as Kraushaar attempted to say that CBS not having Black journalists was fine because they had other journalists of color, AOC fought back, noting that other races and ethnicities are not interchangeable.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 13, 2019
Do you understand how fundamental the black experience is to American politics? And to American history?
“It doesn’t work like that. It’s not about ‘quotas.’ It’s about understanding the country you’re living in,” she said. “One race isn’t substitutable for another.”
There has been no official response from CBS nor from the National Association of Black Journalists.
