New York Times reporter John Surico was put on the defense after Refinery29 reporter Andrea González-Ramírez lambasted the paper for its failure to cover the campaign of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
González-Ramírez, who covers news and politics for the website, slammed the “disconnected” Times on Wednesday for dismissing Ocasio-Cortez as a “nosy brown girl with impossible dreams,” adding, “we knew better.”
Her criticism earned a quick response from Surico, a freelancer for the Times who covers New York City for the Metro desk and contributed to its article on Ocasio-Cortez’s victory. “If you’re going to castigate NYT, then you have to fault all of NYC media — all of which didn’t see Ocasio-Cortez coming,” he wrote.
González-Ramírez also said she took issue with the Times’ characterization of the outlets that had covered Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign — including Mic, Refinery29, and Elite Daily — as “websites most often associated with millennial and female audiences.” She pushed back against the description, calling it “insulting” and saying it suggested “millennials and women couldn’t possibly care about so-called serious issues.” She concluded: “This is such a comemierda [pretentious] approach.”
“R29, Elite Daily, and Mic ARE national outlets,” she wrote. “Maybe the Times should learn something from us.”
Surico punched back, saying that he is a millennial himself and added that the characterization was intended to differentiate the three websites from “broad-audience publications” such as Time and Politico.
The Times later issued a correction to the original article, writing that the three outlets do, in fact, “reach a national audience.”
González-Ramírez also attributed the Times’ failure to cover the campaign to its mostly white political reporting staff, citing a Harvard study which analyzed the racial breakdown of political reporting teams from 2016 by newsroom and found that the Times was 90 percent white.
“Maybe start hiring more diverse reporters — young, women and non-binary, of color, from working class backgrounds and more. Because anyone with a little bit of insight into the communities @Ocasio2018 belongs to could have told you she stood a chance,” she said. “Maybe they should stop believing their own internal bullsh– and start paying attention about what’s happening outside.”
Though González-Ramírez went on to ask Surico why the Times hadn’t covered the campaign, he couldn’t provide her with an answer.
“I don’t make those decisions,” he said. “[I am] just a freelancer, defending our reporting.”
See the full exchange González-Ramírez and Surico between below.
https://twitter.com/andreagonram/status/1011946240442028034
Two Millennials wrote this article! (Myself included.) And if you're going to castigate NYT, then you have to fault all of NYC media — all of which didn't see Ocasio-Cortez coming.
— John Surico (@JohnSurico) June 27, 2018
"Wrote her off as a nosy Brown girl" is pretty bad castigation… and Mic, Refinery29, and Elite Daily, while reaching a huge audience, the thinking here was broad-audience publications (Time, Politico, etc.)
— John Surico (@JohnSurico) June 27, 2018
https://twitter.com/andreagonram/status/1011973926958886912
It's a good point! But I don't have an answer for you, because I don't make those decisions :/ Just a freelancer, defending our reporting.
— John Surico (@JohnSurico) June 27, 2018