Fear and balanced: The week in AOC

It wouldn't be the Week in AOC without some AOC -- here's an especially nice double-dip from in which Fox changes its mind over a few hours about how best to illustrate Tuesday's investigative gem from the Daily Caller -- but the real story last week seems to be another candidate moving up in the Fear and Balanced rankings. Indeed, there was no AOC until Tuesday, because Monday was all Beto, led by the ever-popular "faces questions":

 Reuters is facing ethical questions after admitting that reporter Joseph Menn sat on an unfavorable story about media darling Beto O’Rourke until after his crucial Senate race against Ted Cruz.

... But the reporter, it turns out, knew about this history since 2017 -- and sat on it. According to Menn, members of the hacking group were protecting O'Rourke's identity and wouldn't confirm his affiliation unless the reporter promised not to write about it until after the November election. They apparently struck a deal.

We seem to have been over this one before, back in the days when Fox News still worshiped John McCain: When you get information by giving a promise, you have an obligation to keep that promise. You're welcome to your own view about how to weight that against other duties, but if you were expecting Fox to win a prize from the ethics division this year, you might want to keep waiting a while longer.

Anyway, former Rep. O'Rourke had two other appearances Monday: A fairly standard commentary and a reminder of why things aren't always as rosy as they seem:

Beto O'Rourke raised a whopping $6.1 million in his first 24 hours as a presidential candidate, while drawing big crowds -- and a herd of reporters -- as he campaigned across Iowa and Wisconsin after launching his 2020 bid.

But despite riding a wave of media fanfare, the former three-term congressman from Texas has stumbled out of the gate with a string of apologies and clarifications.

Hang on for more about those apologies and clarifications; they're back on Tuesday as Beto has to share the front with other Democrats ("called out" is sort of a passive version of "faces questions"):

If you already thought the Democratic 2020 candidates were a frightened pack of cocktail weenies, get a load of Beto, a guy as sturdy as a gummy worm.

You want pathetic? Here's pathetic: He felt he had to apologize...over a joke he made about his wife.

Though clearly other Fox commentators take a different view:

 ... The usual cries of “white male privilege” and O’Rourke’s almost ritualistic admission of guilt make it easy to dismiss the issue as just another example of social justice warriors and the radical left overreacting with criticisms of every little thing any public figure says. But although I’m generally inclined to defend people who are under attack from the "PC police," I think O’Rourke’s liberal critics have a fair point.
On the bright side, Fox has found some reason to write about Elizabeth Warren besides channeling its masters' barely veiled racism. So that's something.

O'Rourke provides an especially striking lead story on Wednesday, though as usual some other outfit has done the legwork:

Beto O’Rourke didn’t eat crow, humble pie or even his words after losing to Ted Cruz. He ate dirt instead.

O’Rourke, who came up short in his bid to unseat Sen. Cruz, R-Texas, despite raising $80 million for the Senate push, told the story of his earthy snack in a sprawling 3,000-word profile published by The Washington Post.

He also rates another commentary and manages to get in a little lese-majeste against one of Fox's most important friends:

PLYMOUTH, N.H. - Beto O’Rourke is taking aim at embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming the steadfast ally of Republican President Trump “has openly sided with racists.”

The Democratic presidential candidate and former congressman from Texas – on the campaign trail in New Hampshire – also criticized negotiators ostensibly trying to end the generations-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Right now we don’t have the best negotiating partners on either side. We have a

prime minister in Israel who has openly sided with racists,” he charged.

Given that AIPAC has said more or less the same thing about Netanyahu's preferences in coalition-building, you'd think Fox would want to tone it down a bit. Then again, lots of things about the fractious Near East seem kind of new to Fox:

... O’Rourke once again called for a “two-state solution” between Israel and the Palestinians to achieve peace in the Middle East. “I believe in peace and dignity and full human rights for the Palestinian people and the Israeli people. The only way to achieve that … is a two-state solution,” he emphasized.

He's back to the lead on Thursday, with some friends (and a Clinton story below, in case anyone has forgotten who the Main Enemy is):

 ... but Fox can't pass up the chance for a "mockery on social media" moment for a lesser-known Democrat:

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., a 2020 presidential candidate, is facing blowback on social media for sharing a video of herself working out during a return campaign visit to Iowa.

The clip shows Gillibrand, 52,  lifting weights at a gym in the Hawkeye State, wearing a shirt that reads, “Just trying to get some ranch.”

... On Wednesday, Gillibrand’s tweet was the subject of mockery on social media, with some Twitter users accusing her of trying too hard to “relate to the average American.”

And the apologies are back on Friday!

Pretty impressive week for O'Rourke there, but Fox also made space for AOC. In addition to Tuesday, she made the front page Wednesday by being the subject of a Republican ad:

Less than three months after taking office, New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose favorability numbers have plummeted in some recent polls, is already front and center in a GOP congressional candidate's upcoming campaign advertisement.

Actually, that'd be one "recent poll" (the link is as provided by Fox), and it found that her "favorability" had risen by 7 points against a similar pre-election poll, but that's just Fox lying about other people's statistics again.

AOC has three appearances on the frontpage Friday, starting with a lead:

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., appeared on a late-night comedy talk show Thursday night but was stone-cold serious in her defense of the Green New Deal, the cornerstone of her progressive agenda.

When asked by “Late Night” host Seth Meyers if President Trump’s claims that “cows farting” and “hamburgers” would be outlawed were true, Ocasio-Cortez firmly answered “No.”

The same program is good for another story later:

Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., compared President Trump to a worm during an interview on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on Thursday -- but you'd need your dictionary to know that.

The 29-year-old congresswoman used an obscure term to take a swipe at Trump toward the end of her appearance, when Meyers asked her about winning the second-place prize as a teen in her high school science competition.

“Science was my first passion,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “I studied microbiology and the impacts of antioxidants on a model organism known as the C. elegan, which is of the nematode family.”

Meyers compared Ocasio-Cortez’s interest in science to that of Trump, interjecting “I think he did that, too.”

“Because he’s a nematode?” she retorted while the crowd roared in laughter, comparing the president to the roundworms found as parasites in animals and plants.

And, of course, illustrating a story about her party's Stalinist tendencies (as is often the case, she's not mentioned late -- here, the eighth paragraph).

The Green New Deal is back on the front Sunday, which also features the return of arch-villainess Ilhan Omar:

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar faced hundreds of protesters Saturday outside a Southern California fundraising event for the local chapter of a major advocacy group representing Muslim-Americans.

“Burn the Quran!," “Ilhan Omar, go to hell!” and “Shame on you, terrorists!" were among some of the messages shouted outside a Woodland Hills hotel where the Minnesota Democrat spoke at a fundraiser for the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of Greater Los Angeles, according to a report. The town is about 25 miles northwest of downtown L.A.
 
Weird. You'd think Fox might have other stuff to worry about on Sunday besides reminding everybody that Islamophobia is its favorite indoor sport. To each his own, one supposes.

You have to call this a pretty good week for young O'Rourke, though AOC is still looking like the consensus Rookie of the Year. And some ideas start to suggest themselves for narrowing down the primary field at debate time. Maybe they could all just sit around and watch Fox slideshows until they fall over laughing.