The mainstream media is now running damage control for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and the rest of the “Green New Deal” authors, after they suffered a major embarrassment involving an “FAQ” on the GND that appears to show the real intent behind the “landmark” piece of environmental legislation: turning the United States into a socialist paradise.
Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez and her advisers began running a full-scale operation to distract and deflect from criticism of the Green New Deal, suggesting first that conservatives had circulated a handful of “doctored” versions of her FAQ, and then, when that line of attack failed, that the posted FAQ, which suggested, among other things, a universal income even for those “unwilling” to work, was an irrelevant “early draft.”
But instead of laying the blame where it belonged — squarely at the feet of Ocasio-Cortez and her advisers, who clearly botched their own Green New Deal rollout — the media immediately blamed conservatives for “pouncing” on Ocasio-Cortez’s plan.
Business Insider provided the most egregious example, accusing conservatives of unfairly “attacking” Ocasio-Cortez for “accidentally” leaking a document posted to her website and delivered directly to several members of the news media.
It’s truly amazing to watch the story about AOC’s #GreenNewDeal plan turn into how Republicans are attacking her for wanting to provide economic security to those “unwilling to work for it.”
This idea that the plan she talked about all day was released on accident is laughable. pic.twitter.com/vvY2JlfGW7
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) February 10, 2019
Business Insider was ultimately forced to rewrite the headline and issue a new tweet after right-leaning reporters pointed out that the leak appeared to be far from “accidental.” Ocasio-Cortez’s team posted the FAQ to the congresswoman’s official website, and members of her press team sent a pitch containing the FAQ to a number of high-profile media outlets, including National Public Radio, which posted the document in full on its website as soon as the congresswoman’s embargo on the material lifted.
The Hill also denied Ocasio-Cortez’s failure, claiming the congresswoman was “forced to clarify” the precepts of her Green New Deal after concerns over everything from the document’s prohibition of domestic air travel, to its proposed extensive overhaul of the American financial system, ending with a universal guaranteed income, universal health care, and a multi-trillion-dollar entitlement program.
“Forced to clarify”
I believe this is what @continetti calls our “secretarial media” https://t.co/UNs4frY5IM
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 10, 2019
Even The Washington Post, which could not deny that the FAQ appeared in multiple outlets on Thursday and Friday, tried to sow skepticism about the document’s validity, calling the sheet a “mystery.”
Incredibly strange dynamic rn. A zillion outlets have run w/ GND = mystery FAQ sheet, which includes things like $ for those “unwilling to work”
But thats not in the plan the Senators signed off on. Now AOC is retweeting her adviser telling Fox the sheet is itself not theirs pic.twitter.com/1Fcw2PvsIM
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) February 9, 2019
At no point was the sheet a “mystery.” It came directly from Ocasio-Cortez’s office. But the mainstream media appears not simply unwilling to admit the congresswoman’s mistake — or, even, perhaps, the full intent of the Green New Deal itself — but that Americans might have been shocked at the official piece of legislation, and not merely a conservative rewrite.
Ultimately, Ocasio-Cortez and her advisers took partial blame for the document, claiming it was merely a “draft” FAQ that was posted and sent to reporters by mistake. They have promised a more accurate rundown of the Green New Deal legislation.