Where's the Media Outrage? AOC Pushes Boycott of New York Post
There is no disputing that there is a contentious relationship between President Donald Trump and the mainstream media. The media consistently attack Trump over everything he says and does, and Trump responds to their bias and dishonesty by dismissing the media as “fake news” or an “enemy of the people.”
Of course, Trump’s actions are often justifiable, if at times over-the-top, shots at the media only compel further consternation from its liberal denizens, many of whom characterize the president’s remarks about specific journalists or certain media outlets as some sort of unprecedented assault on the First Amendment’s freedom of the press.
But that entirely predictable reaction from the left is sorely lacking when someone other than the president — say, a self-proclaimed socialist progressive congresswoman from New York — does virtually the same thing, accusing a specific media outlet of being dishonest and biased and even backing a boycott effort designed to financially cripple and silence it.
Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has promoted a targeted boycott effort against the New York Post, and the rest of the media — in stark contrast to the nonpartisan manner in which all outlets typically band together to defend against Trump’s attacks — are incredibly silent on the matter.
Ocasio-Cortez sat for an interview on Sunday with Yahoo News reporter Michael Isikoff for his “Skullduggery” podcast, and one of the topics discussed was the freshman congresswoman’s support for a boycott against the New York Post.
The boycott was started and coordinated by largely Yemeni-American bodega owners in New York City who are refusing to sell the newspaper on their newsstands in response to the Post’s recent coverage of Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s dismissive remarks about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Isikoff asked why Ocasio-Cortez would support a boycott against a “hometown” newspaper like the New York Post, but the congresswoman dismissed the paper as little more than a “toy” of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns News Corporation, the parent company of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets.
Ocasio-Cortez dismissed the assertion that her opposition to the newspaper was the result of its extensive and “tough” coverage of her and said, “It can be annoying or agitating, but I didn’t call for this when they were going after me.”
Instead, she claimed her opposition stemmed from the paper’s cover with regard to Omar’s “some people did something” 9/11 commentary.
That cover featured a picture of the moment a hijacked plane exploded into one of the World Trade Center towers and was captioned, “Here’s your something.” The congresswoman decried the cover as being “beyond the pale” and an attack that incited violence against Omar.
The most powerful cover we’ve run in my time here: “Here’s your something,” Rep. Omar! pic.twitter.com/jjPDSuyosJ
— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) April 11, 2019
“It’s whatever. There’s aggressive politics. There’s people that won’t be fair to you and things like that, and I understand that that’s part of the field that comes with it. But, you know, I think that this is unacceptable,” she said.
“And also I think it is important too, to assert that I didn’t call for a boycott of the New York Post. What I’m amplifying is organizing that’s happening on the ground, and I, I do think that there’s a substantive difference between the two.”
Isikoff noted that Ocasio-Cortez had retweeted a link promoting the boycott, which could be construed as an “implicit” endorsement, to which the congresswoman readily admitted, “I endorse it. I do endorse it.”
Two years ago, Bodega owners across NYC (& cheered by neighbors)shut their shops citywide to protest Trump’s #MuslimBan.
Today, that same community is banding together to reject sales of the NY Post at bodegas citywide.
This is what real unity (& NYC solidarity) looks like ⬇️ https://t.co/mj8vtA4Pv5
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 13, 2019
However, when asked what her specific goal was in supporting a boycott against the New York Post, Ocasio-Cortez seemed to demur and claimed she only wanted to support the community organizers in their efforts.
Pretend for a moment that this was an interview with President Trump, and he said virtually the same things as Ocasio-Cortez, except with a focus on The New York Times or The Washington Post, and now imagine how the media would have reacted to such an explicit call for a boycott against a major media outlet.
You don’t have to imagine because it has already happened countless times in the past. The near entirety of the mainstream media will join together and circle the wagons to protect one of their own from the supposed assault on the First Amendment and the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of the press.
Alas, this explicit assault on a major newspaper in New York City came from the leftist media’s favored darling, so all eyes have been averted. There is nothing to see here folks, move along; it’s time to get back to bashing Trump and his supporters.
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