Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is doubling down on her pushback against NBC News after the media outlet misconstrued her role at the Democratic National Convention in a Tuesday night tweet and headline and then took hours to correct the record.
On Thursday, the congresswoman quote-tweeted a take by New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen that lambasted NBC News as a whole for the misleading information peddled about Ocasio-Cortez. Rosen wrote that while many were blaming NBC’s social media team for the tweet, the “account broadcasting this pathetic error speaks in the name of the entire news division.”
Ocasio-Cortez responded by echoing those sentiments and stressed that the network’s “misleading headline” about her very short nomination speech for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ― suggesting something untoward because it didn’t also endorse Joe Biden ― caused “thousands of people” to be “confused and angry.”
“@NBCNews still hasn’t apologized,” she wrote in her tweet, adding: “This is on their entire news team.”
The lawmaker continued in another tweet that she’s taking this issue as seriously as she is because it’s reminiscent of the “recklessness before in ’16.”
“We have seen click-hungry media coverage bring voters to a froth for no reason but views,” she wrote, adding that it will happen to Democratic nominees Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, too, and that it “needs to stop now.”
She emphasized in another tweet that NBC News may be a “legacy brand,” but the “manipulative behavior” displayed in its tweet is still “dangerous & needs to be checked.”
On Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez had delivered a symbolic nominating speech for Sanders to honor his campaign and the delegates he won around the country. A tweet and a story headline by NBC News both made it appear that the representative was deliberately snubbing Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee.
NBC News’ tweet remained up for a few hours Tuesday night, causing a frenzy online as readers began lashing out at Ocasio-Cortez for the perceived dis. The news outlet issued a two-part clarification in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
However, the damage had already been done.
Long before NBC News’ clarification, the progressive Democrat offered an explainer for those who were perplexed by her DNC speech and the resulting coverage. She gave her “deepest congratulations” to Biden and called the coverage of her own remarks “completely unacceptable, disappointing and appalling.”
In a later tweet, she wrote: “So @NBCNews how are you going to fix the incredible amount of damage and misinformation that you are now responsible for? Because a 1:15am tweet to slip under the radar after blowing up a totally false and divisive narrative across networks isn’t it.”
The youngest woman ever to serve in Congress has been the target of much ire, despite having first run for office only two years ago. A Latina who had famously worked as a bartender, she quickly became one of the most talked-about players in Washington as her powerful, punchy speeches and her proclivity for dunking on people on Twitter often upset conservatives.
She has also been outspoken about the media’s tough coverage on her in the past. As Ocasio-Cortez told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in 2019: “I think that there’s a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually and semantically correct than about being morally right.”
NBC News did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.