CNS Still Thinks Mocking AOC Is ‘News’

As a right-wing “news” outlet, CNSNews.com thinks it’s “news” to take lame shots at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, usually with headlines designed to make her look ridiculous and unserious. That pattern hasn’t stopped.

An anonymously written March 1 article pulls a line by AOC out of context in the headline — “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘I’m the Boss!’” — and in the lead: “At an event at the New York Hall of Science on Feb. 22, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described why it was important for her to have introduced her Green New Deal, saying: ‘I’m the boss.'”

It’s not until later that CNS gets around to putting the statement in context, revealing it to be much less braggodocius than it was portrayed in the headline and lead paragraph:

“I just introduced Green New Deal two weeks ago and it is creating all of this conversation. Why?” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Because no one else has even tried. Because no one else has even tried. So people are like: Oh, it’s unrealistic. Oh, it’s vague. Oh, it doesn’t address this little minute thing.

“And I am like: You try! You do it! Cause you’re not! Cause you’re not!” she said.

“So until you do it, I am the boss,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “How about that!”

Another anonymously written article — funny how no writer at CNS wants to put their names on these hit pieces, isn’t it? — carries the headline “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘What We Need to Do is Have a Serious Conversation’ About Cow Flatulence.” But the article makes it clear she didn’t say exactly that:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D.-N.Y.) said in a March 29 appearance on MSNBC’s “All in With Chris Hayes” that Americans “need to have a serious conversation” about climate change, including the contribution being made to it by “cow flatulence.”

[…]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded: What I will say is that there–I definitely had a staffer that had a very bad day at work and did release a working draft early. So I get that that’s what they’re seizing on. But really what we need to do is have a serious conversation. And even in in those draft versions, what they were talking about, and, is really about the fact that we need to innovate on our technology you know? Obviously like, I had a staffer you know, released a document to talk about cow flatulence but–

Hayes interrupted: Which is an issue, I just want to say.

“Which is an issue, but here`s the thing,” said Ocasio-Cortez.

“It sounds ridiculous but it literally is an issue,” said Hayes.

“But actually it`s an issue when it comes to contributing to methane,” said Ocasio-Cortez, “but that doesn`t mean you end cows. It means that we need–What it means is that we need to innovate and change our grain, our cow grain, from which you know, they feed in these troughs, that we need to really take a look at regenerative agriculture. Like these are our solutions.”

In other words, there’s notable distance between “serious conversation” and “cow flatulence.” But CNS’ narrative on AOC is to make her look ridiculous, not accurately report the facts.

There was one attack on AOC to which the writer did volunteer to be identified, though. A Feb. 15 piece by managing editor Michael W. Chapman lectured her: “Although nearly all the major studies on habitual marijuana use show a strong link between its consumption and mental illness, including schizophrenia, and violence, House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said it’s perfectly fine if a president of the United States smokes dope because ‘you’re not hurting anybody.’  The 29-year-old self-declared socialist added, ‘yeah, I don’t care.'” Indeed, most of Chapman’s piece is reciting “bulleted highlights” from author Alex Berenson’s speech at the right-wing Hillsdale College about “his findings on teenage marijuana use and its link to mental illness and violence.”

Chapman didn’t mention that the author didn’t exactly help his case by giving his book the same title as original title of the notoriously insane anti-marijuana propaganda film “Reefer Madness” — or that his book has been largely dismissed as inaccurate and alarmist.