Ex-NY Times Chief Slams Paper for Failure to Cover Ocasio-Cortez: ‘Pisses Me Off’

“Missing her rise akin to not seeing Trump’s win coming in 2016,” says Jill Abramson

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Former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson laced into her former employer on Wednesday, chiding the paper’s current leadership for not picking up on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez before her upset primary victory over longtime Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley.

“Kind of pisses me off that @nytimes is still asking Who Is Ocasio-Cortez? when it should have covered her campaign,” she said. “Missing her rise akin to not seeing Trump’s win coming in 2016.”

Abramson shared her thoughts with a tweet of a lengthy explainer of Ocasio-Cortez, published by the Times, after her win.

“We have enormous respect for Jill and deeply appreciate her passion and dedication to The Times. Criticism and feedback helps us do better work and we’re always open to it. On these specifics though, we just disagree with Jill,” the New York Times told TheWrap in a statement.

The campaign of Ocasio-Cortez — 28-year-old a Democratic Socialist — was covered more extensively by publications like Splinter and Refinery29. TheIntercept dedicated heavy coverage to her campaign as well.

“She represented the perfect contrast to Crowley’s model of politics,” TheIntercept’s Ryan Grim said to Politico. “Our theory is that big money corrupts politics. The corollary to that is there is another way to do politics. Otherwise you’re just nihilists. People like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are doing that kind of politics, are important to highlight, to show there is an alternative.”

On Wednesday, reporters were asking questions about Ocasio-Cortez’s association to Thomas Lopez-Pierre, a local political aspirant from New York who ran for office in 2017 on a campaign to protect New Yorkers from “greedy Jewish landlords.” Lopez-Pierre was seen standing just behind Ocasio-Cortez at her victory party this week.

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