The New York Times, or “the paper of record,” as it likes to call itself, missed the boat entirely on newly victorious Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who ousted powerful Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th congressional district. As a result the Times has quickly put together a piece on Ocasio, giving the very quick rise and background of this energetic and exciting candidate who just dethroned an entrenched Democratic incumbent. The Times piece is relatively thorough and well-documented, but they cannot help but look down their nose at what anyone in their right mind might consider the paper’s failure. Their weak coverage of Ocasio or any of the issues she raised that were clearly gaining traction with the people who would be voting was exposed on Tuesday. And so this amazingly tone-deaf and wildly condescending paragraph jumps out of an otherwise decent write-up.
Before Tuesday’s victory catapulted her to the front of the political conversation, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez seemed to find readier audiences with outlets such as Elite Daily, Mic or Refinery29 — websites most often associated with millennial and female audiences — than with traditional publications.
Technically, the New York Times once boasted an almost down-the-middle split of female and male readers, and one of the higher “young people” readerships of most major publications. Now it seems the New York Times isn’t the place for “millennial and female audiences” to get their news from … at least about little things like New York. And just so we are clear about that paragraph, the original version of this article had to be fixed because on top of condescending to those publications for the New York Times’ failures, they somehow also failed to understand the most basic facts about those publications’ reach. Here’s the correction:
The article stated incorrectly that Elite Daily, Mic and Refinery29 — popular among millennials and women — were not national outlets. They do, in fact, reach a national audience.
I guess I should add my own correction:
This article incorrectly called the New York Times “the paper of record.”