Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who uses Twitter on a pace to rival Donald Trump, had a tweet out yesterday celebrating her appearance on the cover of April’s “Time” magazine, which she takes as an affirmation that “in an America … all things are possible” when in reality it shows that the squeaky wheel does get the grease.
Most of her tweets, however, are defensive and usually take aim at her detractors. Such were the three related tweets she posted on Wednesday, slamming Fox News Channel hosts for using a shortened form of her last name, as I did in the headline. This is actually a common practice in journalism and is done with people whose names are (1) so familiar that their pictures appear on the cover of “Time” or (2) a mouthful to say: Ocasio-Cortez is six syllables and becomes cumbersome to repeat, which is why publications on both sides of the ideological spectrum have developed the habit of using her initials.
Naturally, she assumes malice on the part of Fox and ascribes an ulterior motive for this practice.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
By the way: Fox News likes to say my name (incorrectly) as “Cortez,” which I can only imagine is bc that sounds more ‘stereotypically’ Hispanic + probably incites more ‘anxiety’ for them.
Pro Tip:
My last name is not “Cortez,” just as theirs isn’t “Ingra” or “Carl” or “Hann.”— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 21, 2019
In a separate tweet she assumes “they‘re trying to be rude + wrong.”
My last name is Ocasio-Cortez. Full stop. That’s my name.
No, you can’t say “Cortez.” I’ve never used that in my life. “Cortez” is referring to someone else.
Even if they‘re trying to be rude + wrong, my dad’s last name was Ocasio anyway.
(His name was hyphenated too, though.)
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 21, 2019
But here’s the kicker: Fox hosts aren’t even doing what she claims they are. As Amanda Prestigiacomo of The Daily Wire notes, Tom Elliott, founder of the politically neutral Grabien, looked into Cortez’s claim and “found that over the last month Ingraham and Hannity have not once referred to the freshman congresswoman as ‘Cortez’ on their shows.” The same was true for Sean Hannity, whom she calls out in one of her tweets.
Just checked @seanhannity, whom she also accuses of this ostensible hate crime. Like Laura, Hannity did not refer to @AOC as "Cortez" once in the month of March (I checked every show). She's mentioned 20x in one episode, but every time correctly.
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 21, 2019
How do you say “making a mountain out of a molehill” in Latinx?
