Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Cites Lack of Black Journalist on CBS Election Team

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed CBS over the weekend after the team the new network unveiled to cover the 2020 presidential election had no African American journalist on it.

The newly named "presidential campaign reporters and associate producers"--which CBS described as "our boots on the ground for the 2019-2020 election cycle" for both broadcast and digital platforms--did include men, women, Asian Americans and other diverse faces (see graphic above), but the senator signaled that was not good enough, tweeting on Jan. 12:

[embed]https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1084283573178433541[/embed]

According to The Hill, citing an Axios study, Ocasio-Cortez is second only to President Donald Trump in politician's generation of twitter interactions--tweets and re-tweets--over the past month, averaging six a day (it was actually nine on Jan. 12, so she was hitting above her average).

“This group is the initial wave of what will be an outstanding and diverse group of journalists assigned to cover the 2020 election for CBS News,” said a network spokesperson. This is only a portion of CBS' political team, so don't be surprised to find an even more diverse lineup as the election cycle gets into gear.

The outspoken Ocasio-Cortez, elected in November at the age of 28, is a former Bernie Sanders organizer and unabashed progressive and foe of President Trump, including coming to the defense of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and slamming the “faux-outrage” over Tlaib's "impeach the [MF] comment directed toward the President. 

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.